The much studied Galápagos Islands are still offering up wonderful surprises.
A bird spotted and recorded by Charles Darwin on his visit to Floreana Island in 1835 has been observed in the wild there for the first time in 190 years. Darwin’s observations from the small island in the volcanic chain, roughly 1,330 km (825 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, included a small, secretive bird called the Galápagos rail - Laterallus spilonota.
Two years ago, work commenced on the Floreana Island Restoration Project removing invasive species that had devastated native wildlife for generations, allowing the island's environment to recover and enable its original inhabitants to recover and thrive, reports BBC Wildlife.
One of these was the Galápagos rail, a land-bird endemic to the archipelago, which had been severely impacted by these invasive species. It dwells on the ground, is extremely vulnerable to predators, and relies on dense, lush vegetation to hide in. But happily, thanks to the restoration project, the rails are already repopulating Floreana.
This is the first year they are known to be back. Confirmed findings include six acoustic records, two visual sightings, and one photograph.
“The rediscovery of the Galápagos rail confirms what we’ve seen on islands worldwide -remove the invasive threats, and native species can recover in remarkable ways,” said Island Conservation’s Conservation Impact Program Manager Paula Castaño in a statement. “This is an incredible win for Floreana, and fuels our excitement about what other native species might resurface as the island continues its journey toward ecological recovery.”
But perhaps the most intriguing question of all is: are these newly recorded birds from a self-reintroduced lineage or was there was a tiny population of rails that survived, undetected, for 190 years? Scientists are now trying to determine this.
