World’s only alpine parrot species may have moved to mountains to avoid humans: Study

A recent study revealed that New Zealand’s rare and highly endangered alpine parrots may have headed for the mountains to avoid people. According to the Guardian, The ‘Kea’ is considered the only alpine parrot species in the world, even though researchers suggest that the birds were earlier found in different parts of the country. Now, as the parrot species may have migrated to the mountains, the researchers believe that their adaptability could help them survive the climate crisis. 

The researchers from the University of Otago said that climate change’s long-term consequences on the alpine parrots are diverse and dire. The kea could perish in the face of competition to survive, therefore, the scientists, who have been studying the species, are pleased that the bird left for other territories and called it a hallmark of its adaptability. The researchers believe that if the bird was able to move to the mountains to simply escape the humans, it could continue to migrate suitable as warming sets in.

Associate professor Michael Knapp, one of the paper’s lead authors, said that “Physiologically, there is nothing to stop the kea from surviving at lower altitudes. It’s a generalist. It will survive from sea level to alpine”. Knapp said that the idea that kea had moved specifically to avoid people was still speculative and there wasn’t enough information to establish any causative relationship between human settlements expanding and the birds’ adoption of the mountainous zone. However, he added that given kea were physically able to survive in a variety of habitats, it made sense to examine what the primary differences were. 

Alpine parrots could move back to forest 

He explained that in the study, his team compared the bird’s DNA to the kākā, a sister parrot species that live in the forests. They found that there wasn’t much difference between them, suggesting that the kea may be a “generalist”, which was using the alpine zone to avoid lower-lying anthropogenic landscapes. Researchers speculated that the kea’s adaptation to alpine environments may have been helped along by its personality.

The change in habitat, they wrote, “may have facilitated by the evolution of the kea’s unique behavioural repertoire, which includes high learning and problem-solving abilities, the researchers said. They concluded that if global heating dramatically shrinks alpine habitats for kea, they could return to the forests – a move that would push them back into competition with kākā. It is worth noting that according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, kea today are nationally endangered, with only around 3,000 to 7,000 birds remaining in the country. 

(Image: Unsplash)