Moloka'i flightless ibis (SciiFii)

The Moloka'i flightless ibis (Apteribis glenos) is a species of flightless birds in the ibis subfamily that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Because of its flightlessness unlike most ibises, due to having short wings, it is susceptible to becoming trapped in lava tubes. The Moloka'i flightless ibis exerts heavy predation pressure on the native land snails. The Moloka'i flightless ibis has a brown-and-beige coloration similar to that of a juvenile Eudocimus ibis. The Moloka'i flightless ibis may have evolved both its flightlessness and its coloration through a form of paedomorphosis. The Moloka'i flightless ibis also has unusually short stocky legs that give it proportions much more like a kiwi than an ibis, and it even lives very much like a kiwi, probing around in the forest litter with its beak searching for snails and other invertebrates. The conservation status of the Moloka'i flightless ibis is Vulnerable due to some habitat loss and, historically, invasive pigs and egg-eating rodents, however, thanks to the conservationists, the invasive pigs and rodents were completely eradicated from all of the Hawaiian Islands and the Moloka'i flightless ibis is a protected species.
Category:Animals
Category:Species
Category:SciiFii