September 24, 2020
'Akohekohe. Photo by Jack Jeffrey
In September 2020, Dr. Hart et al. published a study that looks at the movement patterns of the endangered ʻAkohekohe bird on Maui. The findings of this study show that adult birds stick to their territories at high elevations, which keeps them away from disease carrying mosquitoes, but juveniles have much different movement patterns that bring them into low elevation areas where they may be bitten by these mosquitoes. This is likely the reason that the populations of ʻAkohekohe are not expanding into lower elevation forests, despite there being plenty of food there for them.
Read the full article: Wang et al. 2020
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