Sunday, December 6, 2009

New species before our eyes?

From Wired.com, could English birdfeeders inadvertently cause a speciation event?

Central European blackcap warblers that spend the winter in the birdfeeder-rich United Kingdom are on a different evolutionary trajectory than those that migrate to Spain. The population hasn’t yet split into two species, but it’s headed in that direction.

“This is reproductive isolation, the first step of speciation,” said Martin Schaefer, a University of Freiburg evolutionary biologist.
*snip*

About 30 percent of blackcaps from southern Germany and Austria now migrate to the United Kingdom, shaving 360 miles from their traditional, 1,000-mile Mediterranean voyage. Because they’ve less distance to travel, they tend to arrive home first in the summertime and to live in prime forest-edge spots. All this makes the U.K. migrants more likely to mate with each other than with their old-fashioned brethren.

Schaefer says he doubts that birdfeeders will be around long enough to complete the task, but it's a fascinating prospect nonetheless.

4 comments:

James Hanley said...

"Schaefer says he doubts that birdfeeders will be around long enough to complete the task,"

Was there any reason given for this doubt? I'm not sure why birdfeeders would be expected to ever go away.

Scott Hanley said...

I think he just expects that human culture and behavior change faster than genotypes, so he expects the feeders to flake out before speciation can become complete.

Interesting question, though. It seems to me that behavioral patterns might get locked in long before the populations can no longer interbreed, so reproductive isolation could become fixed in a much shorter time frame.

James Hanley said...

I suspect you're right, but I also expect bird feeding to be a long-term human behavior. At least in England (and the U.S.) where there is a strong cultural tradition and an active market.

It'd be nice to live long enough to see how this plays out.

Scott Hanley said...

"It'd be nice to live long enough to see how this plays out."

Depends on the time frame, unless you're expecting to be very healthy in your old age! ;-)