Scientists find a bird in Papua New Guinea that hasn’t been seen for 140 years

A team of scientists went on an expedition to Papua New Guinea and, after a month of waiting, made an incredible discovery. In front of the lens of one of the many cameras they have left hidden in the vegetation, a pigeon black-naped pheasanta bird that hadn’t been documented for the past 140 years.

It is a large elusive dove that lives on the ground and inhabits only the Ferguson Island, the largest of the archipelago D’Entrecasteaux, in the east of that oceanic country. It has an area of ​​just over 1,400 square kilometers, characterized by a mountainous terrain covered with tropical forest and three large volcanoes.

“Like other pheasant pigeons, the black-naped pheasant pigeon has a broad, laterally compressed tail, which, coupled with its size, makes it look very much like a pheasant,” the expedition team explained, along with a video posted on Youtube .

Although “the bird has been observed several times in recent years by local hunters”, the newly obtained images represent “the first time scientists have documented the bird since 1882when originally described”.

“When we gathered the camera traps, I figured there was less than a one percent chance of getting a photo of the black-naped pheasant dove. Then, as I scrolled through the photos, I was struck by this photo of this bird walking past our camera,” said Jordan Boersma, postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University and co-leader of the expedition team.

For his part, John C. Mittermeier, director of the Lost Birds program on ABC and co-director of the expedition, explained: “After a month of research, seeing those first photos of the dove-pheasant was like finding a unicorn. It’s the kind of moment you dream about all your life as an environmentalist and bird watcher.”

How was the shipment?

Notably, the expedition team, made up of locals working at the Papua New Guinea National Museum, members of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and people from the American Bird Conservancy, arrived in Fergusson in early September 2022.

For a month they toured the island and interviewed local communities to find out the best places to install the cameras.

“It was only when we got to the villages on the western slopes of Mount Kilkerran that we started meeting hunters who had seen and heard the pheasant-dove,” said Jason Gregg, conservation biologist and expedition team co-leader. .

In all, they placed 12 cameras on the slopes of Mount Kilkerran, Fergusson’s highest mountain. Additionally, eight additional cameras were placed at different locations where hunters had seen this bird species.

“When we finally found the black-naped pheasant dove, it was during the last hours of the expedition. When I saw the photos, I was incredibly excited,” said Doka Nason, one of the camera installation managers.

Finally, the black-naped pheasant pigeon passed a camera located on a ridge 1,000 meters near the Kwama River.

IS