Rare bird not seen for 24 years found alive in Madagascan forests

A uncommon hen that hadn’t been seen for twenty-four years has been confirmed alive after expeditions in Madagascar’s forests discovered three people.

The sightings of the dusky tetraka, a small, ground-dwelling forest hen, might immediate a rewrite of ornithology textbooks, because the birds had been seen by the rocky banks of mountain streams – not beforehand considered their favoured habitat.

The dusky tetraka (Xanthomixis tenebrosa), an olive hen with a yellow throat, was included in a prime 10 “most wanted” listing by the Search for Lost Birds, a conservation collaboration launched in 2021.

Since December, three people have been seen by two groups from charity The Peregrine Fund. The expeditions had been made to forests on excessive mountain slopes, as that is the place most remaining wooded areas are in Madagascar.

The first crew discovered a person close to a stream within the island’s Masoala peninsula by utilizing a mist web, a fantastic mesh that’s suspended between bushes so birds get tangled in it. The web is checked incessantly after which birds may be launched unhurt.

The second crew’s efforts didn’t go easily because it was found that a lot of the goal area close to Andapa had been became vanilla farms.

But when the crew switched to looking out a decrease elevation, at about 800 metres above sea stage, John Mittermeier on the American Bird Conservancy noticed a pair of the birds hopping round in undergrowth by a stream. “It’s a moment that’s tremendously exciting – to be looking for something that long and then there it is,” he says. “Afterwards it felt like a dream.”

The subsequent day, the crew caught what was most likely one of many similar pair in a mist web, and confirmed that it was certainly the fitting species.

Lily-Arison Rene de Roland at The Peregrine Fund says the confirmed sightings ought to assist efforts to preserve the hen’s habitat.

If its most well-liked habitat is by streams, this could be why it hasn’t been seen for thus lengthy, because the sound of the dashing water might drown out its calls, says Mittermeier.