Smelly NZ birds may need odour protection
24 Sep 2010
Smelly kiwis and other whiffy native birds would be better protected if they used deodorant, according to a Canterbury biological scientist looking into predator-prone New Zealand species.
Jim Briskie, Biological Sciences associate professor at Canterbury University in Christchurch, is conducting research into the body odours of the country’s native birds and reckons New Zealand natives may not have learnt to mask their smells like their continental counterparts - making them an easy target for predators.
The Canadian, who moved to New Zealand 13 years ago, has been awarded more than NZ$600,000 in funding to investigate the theory over the next three years.
New Zealand has 73 native bird species on the World Conservation Union’s 'red list' of threatened species - many of them flightless and therefore critically endangered.
Odour-eaters
Briskie says his research could potentially lead to innovative technology, such as odour-eaters for bird nests.
"Down the line if we do find some species are particularly smelly or vulnerable, perhaps I can design a deodorant for kiwis."
Briskie began his research after hearing people refer to kiwi as smelling like mushrooms and kākāpo / native parrots like musty violin cases. He started wondering if native birds smelt any different to their foreign cousins.
A bird's smell comes from the preening waxes they use to maintain their feathers.
The wax is squeezed from a small gland on their rump, but continental birds seem to be able to mask their smell, especially around nesting season.
Wax samples
Briskie’s research to date has involved gathering wax samples from six songbirds. He found that New Zealand birds seemed to smell stronger.
For example, the New Zealand robin had a musky smell that was more pungent during mating season.
Birds that evolved with a threat from predators had learnt to tone down their odour, while New Zealand birds did not have that benefit, he said.
Briskie says he plans to use the grant money for a larger field study which would hopefully include testing rarer birds, such as the kiwi and kākāpo.
Once wax samples were collected, they would be sent to a German laboratory for testing.
Determining which birds were susceptible to predators through their smell would be an important piece of the protection puzzle, he said.
If Briskie’s theory is proven, it could become a useful tool in protecting more species from extinction.
A quarter of New Zealand’s birds are found nowhere else on the planet and extensive recovery programmes are underway to protect endangered species.
More information
Iconic New Zealand Birds
Bird conservation in New Zealand
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