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DNA analysis of rare Philippine fruit dove sheds new light on a 70-year mystery

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The Negros fruit dove was described from a single specimen collected in the Philippines in 1953 — then never seen again by scientists. Now, thanks to advances in DNA sequencing, researchers and conservationists are closer to unraveling the secrets of one of the world’s most mysterious birds — including identifying habitats where it may still be hanging on. “As an undergraduate at Yale, the Negros fruit dove was of particular interest because the unique type specimen resides at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History [in the U.S.],” says John Nash, who led a team of Yale biologists who conducted a genetic analysis of the dove. The results of their research were published in the journal Ibis on Jan. 29. Filipino ornithologist Dioscoro S. Rabor obtained the lone specimen in 1953 during an expedition in the forest area of Mount Kanlaon, on the central Philippine island of Negros. He’d shot two of the small green birds, but lost one. That left Rabor and his doctoral adviser, Sidney Dillon Ripley, to base their description of the bird on the sole specimen, a female. Concluding that it was a new species of fruit dove (Ptilinopus), they named it P. arcanus, after the Latin word for “secret” or “hidden.” Over the years, many have tried — and failed — to find the species. However, save for a handful of unconfirmed reports from hunters within the last 40 years, the Negros fruit dove has remained elusive. Some have also speculated that P. arcanus may…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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