五年来首次发现一种难以捉摸、极度濒危的鸟类，也是渡渡鸟现存最近的近亲之一

Elusive, Critically Endangered Bird—and One of the Closest Living Relatives of Dodos—Was Spotted for the First Time in Five Years

Conservationists are racing to save the manumea, a chicken-sized bird that lives only on two Samoan islands, from extinction

Conservationists are feeling cautiously optimistic after spotting a critically endangered bird in the wild in Samoa.

During a recent field survey, experts with the Samoa Conservation Society recorded numerous sightings of the manumea, also known as the tooth-billed pigeon. They’re hopeful they can still save the elusive bird from extinction.

“Although we couldn’t capture a photo this time—the bird’s quick movements in and out of the canopy, sudden and long viewing distance made it nearly impossible—the sightings are strong confirmation that the Manumea is still here,” the group wrote on Facebook on November 7.

The last confirmed sighting was in August 2020, according to Save the Manumea, a joint campaign from the Samoa Conservation Society and Samoa’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The most recent known evidence of breeding was in December 2013, when a juvenile was spotted and photographed in a tree.

The manumea is the national bird of Samoa, an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. It’s one of the few remaining close relatives of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), the flightless bird that famously went extinct during the late 17th century, and it’s the only living member of the Didunculus genus, which means “little dodo” in Latin.

About the size of a small chicken, the manumea has a distinctive red, hooked bill with tooth-like features on the lower structure, or mandible. It has dark, reddish-brown feathers on its wings and dusky gray-blue plumage on its head and chest.

“The results of most recent surveys, which have aimed to simply detect the species in the field, have been inconclusive with only very few recent records,” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).