HEATH HEN - PART 1

The Heath Hen is an interesting creature and its story is one  of my personal favorites, so the next several posts will be devoted to it.  It was one of the first species to be protected by Americans, though for many reasons efforts failed (see tomorrow's timeline).

 The Heath Hen raises the question about what makes an animal unique and a species of its own.  Scientists ran DNA testing on preserved Heath Hens with conflicting results.

 There are 3 different results from the DNA testing.
1) It was its own distinct species.
2) It was a subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken.
3) It was a subspecies of the Lesser Prairie Chicken.

 Regardless, the Heath Hen was a chicken sized member of the grouse family that once thrived from Virginia to New Hampshire.  It was 17 inches long and about 2 pounds. They were were probably even on the menu for the first Thanksgiving, not wild turkey.  In colonial times, they were a "poor man's food".  Servants would actually ask to have something to eat besides heath hens as part of their labor agreements.  They could even be seen in Boston Common.

 Like the Prairie Chicken still remaining today, Heath Hen males would put on elaborate courtship displays in an open area known as a "lekking ground".  Males would lower their heads and raise their pinnae (long pointed feathers on their neck) and inflate their neck sacks and create a "booming" sound.  They would then battle one another to impress the females and claim their territory.  People would come to Martha's Vineyard each year to watch the remaining population duke it out.

“Booming Ben” was the last heath hen to strut his stuff before disappearing March 11, 1932, which is the Heath Hen's Extinction Date. 
People tried to replace the extinct heath hens with greater prairie chickens, but all attempts failed to be fruitful.

 Additional Resources:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOFphkQnRqE
(real footage of Heath Hens for Vineyard Gazette from 1927)

Male Heath Hen display from 1900
Image from Wikipedia



Picture from Boston Museum of Science


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KAWEKAWEAU (DELCOURT'S GIANT GECKO)

Image
The Kawekaweau was the largest member of the gecko family that lived in New Zealand.  It was nearly 24 inches long, which is about twice as large as any other gecko species ever known.  It was the width of a man's wrist and had reddish stripes running the length of its body. Scientists thought that the Kawekaweau was simply a legend for a long time. The name Delcourt comes from the French scientist who rediscovered the only known specimen of of the Kawekaweau in the Natural History Museum of Marseille in 1986. The last recorded living Kawekaweau was in 1870 by a Maori chief.  It is thought that the arrival of Europeans and the invasive species they brought; rats, cats, and weasels took their toll on the Kawekaweau. Additional Resources: http://gizmodo.com/this-specimen-of-an-extinct-giant-gecko-was-found-in-a-1742435773 Drawing from the book, A Gap in Nature The only known specimen of a Kawekaweau
Read more

Visiting Lonesome George in NYC and Martha the Passenger Pigeon in DC

Image
I started this blog  to point out animals you'll never get a chance to meet first hand.  No, I'm not talking about unicorns or centaurs, but about recently extinct animals.  2014 was a big one in extinction news because it marked the 100 year anniversary of the passenger pigeon, when Martha died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914 at 1pm.  I took my family to the Cincinnati Zoo, but Martha's statue wasn't there because they were building a memorial that opened a few weeks after our visit. My wife and I also got to see the real Lonesome George who was on display in New York at the Natural History Museum, before being shipped back to be displayed in the Galapagos.  
Read more

YUNNAN LAKE NEWT

Image
The Yunnan Lake Newt (YLN) was a newt that lived in the region in and around Kunming Lake in the Yunnan Providence in China.  The YLN was about an inch long and the male and female coloration varied slightly. The Yunnan Lake Newt was last seen in 1979.  As the cities around its lake habitat increased, its population plummeted. Amphibians like frogs, salamanders, and newts are extremely vulnerable to pollution because they absorb water, oxygen, and even toxins through their porous skin.  There are many concerns for many amphibian species today (see 2nd link below). Besides pollution, habitat loss for increased housing also took its toll on the YLN population.  The addition of invasive species were the nail in the coffin for this species.  The newts couldn't compete with the addition of domestic ducks, exotic fish and frogs added to the lake. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1367 http://frogsaregreen.org/tag/yunnan-lake-n
Read more