The Island Scrub-Jay may teach us as much about evolution as Charles Darwin鈥檚 finches did over a century ago. Biologist Katie Langin, a graduate student at Colorado State University, has made a remarkable discovery about these birds鈥攖hey鈥檙e splitting into two populations despite inhabiting the same island.
If you haven鈥檛 read about Langin鈥檚 work, Wired has on how these birds鈥 beaks are causing quite a stir among evolution experts (and Langin herself recently for Slate).
While we recommend you read each piece, here鈥檚 the takeaway: Langin spent months on Santa Cruz Island observing Island Scrub Jays, a close relative of the mainland鈥檚 Western Scrub-Jay. She realized that though she studied the birds assuming they were one species, the birds were divided into two groups with different beaks鈥攂irds that preferred oak trees tended to have shorter, stouter beaks, better for breaking into acorns, while the birds that preferred pine trees had longer, narrower beaks, better for prying pine nuts out of pinecones.
This is a pretty standard example of evolution, except one thing鈥攖he birds still live in the same place. Most of the examples of evolution involve some kind of geographic separation; for many years, Darwin and other evolutionary biologists believed physical separation was necessary for populations to diverge. Langin and other researchers are now looking into why these birds are pretty much ignoring each other (even though they could mate) and what this means for evolution theory.
But for Langin, this work presents not just a scientific curiosity but a legitimate conservation question.
鈥淚 think this research shows that we shouldn't just try to conserve Island Scrub-Jays, we should also try to conserve as much of the diversity from the species as possible,鈥 she says.
To preserve the natural balance of Island Scrub-Jays, we鈥檇 have to change the way we see conservation: it may be as important to save diversity within a species as it is to ensure inpidual species鈥 survival. For example, if West Nile Virus, which has already proven deadly for other corvids, makes it to Santa Cruz, we couldn鈥檛 just vaccinate a bare minimum of the birds, but should vaccinate a representative sample from each habitat.
Langin鈥檚 article was published in the journal , and hopefully will bring a greater attention to the birds. 鈥淭here are only around 2,300 individuals of this species, which is a really low number,鈥 says Langin. 鈥淚t's an incredibly rare bird.鈥
The bird gave itself some breathing room by adapting; now it鈥檚 up to us to help it go the rest of the way.