New Zealand storm petrel (Oceanites maorianus)

Postdoctoral project at the University of Otago, New Zealand.

A story about the elusive bird that made it back from the grave.
Mitochondrial and nuclear sequences as well as microsatellites were used to estimate the effective population size of this rare bird that was previously believed to be extinct. It was a very exciting time when I joined the project, as I could not only work with the first genetic samples of this species but we could also track down the island where the species is breeding as well as find the very first New Zealand storm petrel burrow with a chick! Read the NZ Geographic article.

Publications

Robertson BC, Barth JMI. Population genetics and effective population size of the recently rediscovered New Zealand storm-petrel (Oceanites maorianus). In preparation.