Hear all about this close relative of the Dodo, managing to hold on in its little corner of the Pacific.

References:

Amaama, S. A., Schorch, P., & Sung, A. (2025). Sāmoan archival-museum entanglements,(re) activations of the Vā. Museum History Journal, 18(2), 179-195.

Cardoso, G. C., & Price, T. D. (2010). Community convergence in bird song. Evolutionary Ecology, 24(2), 447-461.

Gough, W. B., Hudson, M. A., Young, H. G., Wood, J., Whitehead, H., & Turvey, S. T. (2024). Modelling habitat suitability for the Critically Endangered Manumea or Tooth-billed Pigeon Didunculus strigirostris using past and present baselines. Bird Conservation International, 34, e20.

Jana, A., Uili, M., Atherton, J., O'Brien, M., Wood, J., & Brickson, L. (2025). An Automated Pipeline for Few-Shot Bird Call Classification: A Case Study with the Tooth-Billed Pigeon. arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.16276.

Pratt, H. D., & Mittermeier, J. C. (2016). Notes on the natural history, taxonomy, and conservation of the endemic avifauna of the Samoan archipelago. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 128(2), 217-241.

Serra, G., Sherley, G., Failagi, S. A., Foliga, S. T., Uili, M., Enoka, F., & Suaesi, T. (2018). Traditional ecological knowledge of the Critically Endangered Tooth-billed Pigeon Didunculus strigirostris, endemic to Samoa. Bird Conservation International, 28(4), 620-642.

Serra, G., Wood, G. R., Faiilagi, S. A., Foliga, S. T., Uili, M., & Enoka, F. (2020). Using Samoan traditional ecological knowledge to identify calls of the critically endangered endemic tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris). Pacific Conservation Biology, 27(3), 275-283.

Shapiro, B., Sibthorpe, D., Rambaut, A., Austin, J., Wragg, G. M., Bininda-Emonds, O. R., ... & Cooper, A. (2002). Flight of the dodo. Science, 295(5560), 1683-1683.

Jetz, W., Thomas, G. H., Joy, J. B., Redding, D. W., Hartmann, K., & Mooers, A. O. (2014). Global distribution and conservation of evolutionary distinctness in birds. Current biology, 24(9), 919-930.

Abstract access only:

Collar, N. J. (2015). Natural history and conservation biology of the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris): a review. Pacific Conservation Biology, 21(3), 186-199.

Steadman, D. W. (2006). An extinct species of tooth‐billed pigeon (Didunculus) from the Kingdom of Tonga, and the concept of endemism in insular landbirds. Journal of Zoology, 268(3), 233-241.

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From endemics to beach chickens... Hear all about my cycling and birding trip around Upolu, Samoa! (I think I'm a converted cyclo-birder now!).

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Will you like this episode? Listen to your instincts! (and then check it out to see if you were right!).

References:

Bird, A. (2024). Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: A critical perspective. Frontiers in epigenetics and epigenomics, 2, 1434253.

Blumberg, M. S. (2017). Development evolving: the origins and meanings of instinct. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 8(1-2), e1371.

Conway, P. B. Plasticity of instinct: Interactions of the memory engram with innate behaviour.

Guerrero-Bosagna, C., Morisson, M., Liaubet, L., Rodenburg, T. B., De Haas, E. N., Košťál, Ľ., & Pitel, F. (2018). Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in birds. Environmental Epigenetics, 4(2), dvy008.

Helm, B., & Liedvogel, M. (2024). Avian migration clocks in a changing world. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 210(4), 691-716.

Kashetsky, T., Avgar, T., & Dukas, R. (2021). The cognitive ecology of animal movement: evidence from birds and mammals. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 724887.

Leopold Jr, N. F. (1923). Reason and Instinct in Bird Migration. The Auk, 409-414.

Levis, N. A., & Pfennig, D. W. (2016). Evaluating ‘plasticity-first’evolution in nature: key criteria and empirical approaches. Trends in ecology & evolution, 31(7), 563-574.

Nieder, A., & Mooney, R. (2020). The neurobiology of innate, volitional and learned vocalizations in mammals and birds. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375(1789), 20190054.

Rajan, S., Lamers, K. P., Both, C., & Wheatcroft, D. (2024). Translocated wild birds are predisposed to learn songs of their ancestral population. Current Biology, 34(11), 2535-2540.

Robinson, G. E., & Barron, A. B. (2017). Epigenetics and the evolution of instincts. Science, 356(6333), 26-27.

Verhulst, E. C., Mateman, A. C., Zwier, M. V., Caro, S. P., Verhoeven, K. J., & Van Oers, K. (2016). Evidence from pyrosequencing indicates that natural variation in animal personality is associated with DRD 4 DNA methylation. Molecular ecology, 25(8), 1801-1811.

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