ManuLast news

Bird of the Year 2018 – New Zealand

It is time for Bird of the Year 2018! Voting opens at 9 am on Monday 1 October and closes at 5 pm on Sunday 14 October. New Zealand’s unique native birds are in crisis. A third are at risk of becoming extinct if nothing is done to protect them. Their habitats have been destroyed and […]

05Aug

Birdfair 2018 : 30th Birthday of Conservation

Birdfair will take place from the 17th – 19th of August at Egleton Nature Reserve, Rutland, UK. This summer, the British Birdwatching Fair will celebrate its 30th birthday. That will mark 30 years of global conservation impact. Look back at the successes of the past 30 years!

02Apr

Red List 2017 Bird update

The latest Red List update has been published! To know more about the new List, download BirdLife’s Bird Red List Roundup infographic. To read more : https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/red-list-2017-seabirds-starving-songbirds-trapped-hope-pelican-and-kiwis Worlwide Of the total of 11,122 bird species

25Mar

2018 Ordinary General Meeting of the SOP

The Ordinary General Meeting of MANU held on Saturday, March 17, 2018 at Samuel Raapoto High School (thank you for the welcome!). With a quorum reached at first blow – thanks to the members who came and to those who took the time to send their powers. It was studious but in the same time […]

26Jan

The Origin of Flight – What Use is Half a Wing?

“What use is half a wing?” As a rebuttal to Darwin’s (1859) explanation of the origin and diversification of life, St. George Jackson Mivart (1871) posed a challenge: With this simple question, Mivart challenged Darwin to explain the adaptive role of intermediate forms within an evolutionary continuum,

24Jan

Seabird rescuing network in French Polynesia – Award 2017

The Seabird rescuing network of French Polynesia is a group of volunteers who care for and release grounded and injured seabirds, mostly petrels. Most of the ‘sauveteurs’ are members of the BirdLife Partner SOP Manu, which coordinates their work, and which has nominated the group as Nature’s

07Aug

Colors of birds feathers

Colors of birds feathers and climate: is there a connection? Gloger’s rule states that birds living in humid climates tend to have darker pigmentation. Darker feathers are believed to be useful for defense against parasites, temperature regulation, and camouflage. However, researchers are uncertain about the

04Aug

Ifloveconservation Helps Saving Polynesian Birds

Saving French Polynesian Birds – Interview with Thomas Ghestemme from SOP Manu. Written by Marta Noblejas – 2nd August 2017 http://www.ifloveconservation.com/saving-french-polynesian-birds.html Stretching over a large expanse of the South Pacific Ocean, French Polynesia consists of a group of 118

25Jul

The call of the seabird

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz are developing new acoustic monitoring techniques that could aid seabird conservation. Abe Borker, a Seabird Biologist, is trying to make population studies of seabirds more cost-effective and efficient. Borker explains that based on the call of some species

04Jul

Birds of Eastern Polynesia. A biogeographic Atlas

Birds of Eastern Polynesia, by Jean-Claude Thibault & Alice Cibois, is the first biogeographic Atlas of the birds of one of the largest areas of Oceania. We are pleased to send you a pre-publication announcement for our forthcoming book on birds of Eastern Polynesia The book treats all of the 241 species,