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Science, Sex and the Kakapo William J news and views Conservation biology Science, sex and the kakapo William J. Sutherland Sex-allocation theory predicts how the sex ratio of offspring should vary with the mother’s physical condition. Applying this theory has helped in 100 YEARS AGO retrieving a charismatic parrot from the edge of extinction. I have frequently observed with interest the erect attitude assumed by the small he kakapo, a nocturnal, flightless parrot islands, including Codfish Island, off the Agamid lizard Otocryptis bivittata, Wiegm., found in New Zealand, is an endan- coast of Stewart Island. A world population when running rapidly, and have long Tgered species, its rarity and eccentricity of 62 birds in 2001, with only 21 adult suspected that the short front legs were making it a high-profile test for conserva- females, created an urgent need for more not used at such times. But the rapidity with tionists. At a meeting last month*, Mick females, yet only six female fledglings had which the animal runs, and the nature of the Clout (Univ. Auckland) reported a scientific been produced since 1982. ground which it usually frequents, have success story in reducing the bird’s risk of In most years, kakapo feed mainly on prevented very close observation. I have, extinction. Providing extra food to improve foliage and other poor-quality foods that are however, recently fully satisfied myself that fledging success seems to have inadvertently insufficient to allow breeding. Egg-laying its action is truly bipedal… On several resulted in breeding females producing an is restricted to those years in which certain occasions one of them has crossed a smooth excess of male young, as predicted by evolu- trees — podocarps — undergo mass fruit- sanded road immediately in front of me. I tionary theory1,2. Given this finding, conser- ing, known as masting. Since 1989, supple- have thus been able to see clearly that the vation workers decided to withhold extra mentary food, such as nuts and sweet potato, anterior limbs are carried quite free from the food until after the females had laid their has been given to some individual kakapo ground, progress being effected solely eggs, resulting in a much-needed boost in the from dispensers in their home ranges, result- by the long hind limbs. number of female fledglings this year. ing in a 15% increase in body weight for fed ALSO... The kakapo (Strigops habroptilus; Fig. 1) birds. Unlike natural masting, supplemen- According to a Reuter telegram from was once common in the three largest islands tary food did not seem to induce breeding. Rome, the Italian postal authorities have of New Zealand, but its distribution shrank But fed females spent less time off the nest, examined a scheme submitted by an following the spread of black rats and stoats which increased chick survival. engineer, named Piscicelli, for the introduced from Europe in the 1870s and The theory of sex allocation proposed by establishment of an electric postal service. 1880s. By the 1950s, kakapo were extinct on Trivers and Willard1 states that females in It is proposed, by means of this system, North Island and only 18 remained in a better physical condition should produce to transmit letters in aluminium boxes, remote and mountainous part of South more offspring of the sex that shows the travelling along overhead wires at the rate Island. The stoats are thought to have eaten greater benefit from the improved condi- of 400 kilometres an hour. A letter could not only eggs and chicks, but also incubating tion. Kakapo reproduce in leks — commu- thus be sent from Rome to Naples in females, so all 18 survivors were male. The nal display grounds in which males fight to twenty-five minutes and from Rome to only remaining wild females were on Stewart defend small territories within which they Paris in five hours. Island (south of South Island), which stoats display vigorously. Females visit just to From Nature 18 September 1902. had not colonized, although rats and feral select a mate before raising the young alone cats were present. A bold decision, taken in elsewhere. Studies of various lek-breeding 50 YEARS AGO 1982, was to capture all of the remaining species show strong competition between The dusky-footed wood rat (Neotoma birds and release them on predator-free males, with a few high-quality individuals fuscipes Baird.) is a medium-sized 3 *International Ornithological Congress, Beijing, China, obtaining almost all the matings . rodent native to North America… Wood 11–17 August 2002. Male kakapo fight, sometimes to the rats are nocturnal and are seldom seen without special search, but the conspicuous houses in which they live, built of sticks above ground, readily show their presence… A wood rat’s ability to survive is affected by the conditions that enable it to leave RON MOORHOUSE RON its home and those that affect it away from shelter. A rat that lives in a house providing protection from the weather and predators is exposed to these dangers when away from home. It leaves its house mainly to get food and housebuilding material, to escape from dangerous intruders or intolerant members of its own family, and to find other rats. Many rats contribute to the maintenance of few houses, which last much longer than any single occupant, but the character of each house is dictated by its situation and the available materials; it Figure 1 The eccentric kakapo. This remarkable nocturnal species differs from all other parrots in remains constant in type throughout many ways, including being flightless, mating in display grounds (‘leks’) and breeding only in the successive tenancies. infrequent years when specific trees undergo mass seeding. The sex ratio of the offspring depends From Nature 20 September 1952. on the condition of the mother, which has considerable implications for conserving the species. NATURE | VOL 419 | 19 SEPTEMBER 2002 | www.nature.com/nature © 2002 Nature Publishing Group 265 news and views death4, and larger males are more likely to mechanism by which females manipulate seconds2. The question concerns the physi- mate. Male kakapo also grow faster and the sex ratio remains a mystery. cal origin of this time delay, which has larger than females, and are thus presumably A common problem in conservation is become the subject of some debate3,4. On more costly to raise5. So if Trivers and that endangered species are pushed into sub- page 281 of this issue, Harich et al.5 provide Willard’s hypothesis applies, mothers in optimal areas as a result of predation by an explanation. & & good condition should produce more sons. introduced species or exploitation in their In the H D2¨HD D reaction, effects Females provided with supplementary food core range. Among the bird species that have beyond the direct recoil mechanism are indeed produced significantly more sons (an only really flourished once they were moved expected to become apparent only when the average of 67% against 29% for birds not are the nene in Hawaii, the Lord Howe wood- quantum states of the reactant and product given supplementary food)2. There is accu- hen on Lord Howe Island, the takahe in New molecules are directly interrogated. A useful, mulating evidence that maternal condition Zealand and the red kite in Britain. Intensive measurable quantity is the ‘state-to-state dif- regularly affects the offspring sex ratio in a manipulation of the kakapo has had its suc- ferential cross-section’ — the probability for range of species6, including tree swallows7, cesses, but the long-term solution will surely the reaction to proceed from reactants in a lesser black-backed gulls8, great reed war- lie in finding ways of restoring predator-free specific initial quantum state to products in a blers9 and another species of parrot10. areas on the main islands of New Zealand. I specific final quantum state as a function of A profuse fruiting of podocarp trees was William J. Sutherland is at the Centre for Ecology, the scattering angle between them. This & expected to trigger kakapo breeding on Cod- Evolution and Conservation, School of Biological quantity was first measured for the H D2 fish Island this year, so the New Zealand Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich reaction at a single collision energy by Welge Department of Conservation concentrated NR4 7TJ, UK. and co-workers1 in the 1990s. all remaining 21 adult females there. Supple- e-mail: [email protected] Following the suggestion of Miller and mentary feeding was delayed until after egg 1. Trivers, R. L. & Willard, D. E. Science 179, 90–92 (1973). Zhang6, Althorpe et al.2 have since measured production. The idea was to avoid boosting 2. Clout, M. N., Elliot, G. P. & Robertson, B. C. Biol. Conserv. 107, the state-to-state differential cross-section 13–18 (2002). female condition too much before laying, to 3. Höglund, J. & Alatalo, R. V. Leks (Princeton Univ. Press, 1995). over a range of collision energies, in the hope avoid a male bias in offspring. Extra food 4. Clout, M. N. & Merton, D. V. Bird Conserv. Int. 8, 281–295 of gaining greater insight into the reaction (1998). & & was still provided after laying to maximize dynamics of the H D2¨HD D process. By 5. Powesland, R. G. et al. Ibis 134, 361–373 (1992). fledging success. 6. Tella, J. L. Trends Ecol. Evol. 16, 76–77 (2001). varying the wavelength of the photolysis laser The strategy seems to have worked: as 7. Whittingham, L. A. & Dunn, P. O. Mol. Ecol. 9, 1123–1129 used to photodissociate HBr precursor mol- Clout described at the meeting, 15 of the (2000). ecules (and hence generate the reagent H 24 young fledged this year were female.
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