With global warming decreasing the size of New Zealand’s alpine zone, a University of Otago study found out what this means for our altitude-loving kea.
With global warming decreasing the size of New Zealand’s alpine zone, a University of Otago study found out what this means for our altitude-loving kea.
The study, published in Molecular Ecology, analysed whole genome DNA data of the kea and, for the first time, its forest-adapted sister species, the kākā, to identify genomic differences which cause their habitat specialisations.
The researchers found the kea is not an alpine specialist, but rather one that adapted to using such an open habitat because it was least disturbed by human activity.
Co-author Associate Professor Michael Knapp, of the Department of Anatomy, says that is not likely to surprise people who know the wide altitudinal range in which kea can be found, but it does not mean the species is out of the woods in terms of threats from a warming climate.
Read more at University of Otago
Photo credit: zebe_nz via Pixabay
