Biologists in Texas say they’ve found a brand new chicken that they imagine is a hybrid of two present species. Researchers on the College of Texas at Austin have named the brand new chicken a “grue jay.”
In keeping with a press release, they imagine the chicken is among the first recognized examples of a hybrid between a blue jay and a inexperienced jay.
“We expect it’s the primary noticed vertebrate that’s hybridized on account of two species each increasing their ranges due, at the least partially, to local weather change,” stated Brian Stokes, a graduate pupil in ecology, evolution, and habits at UT and the primary writer of the examine.
The ranges of the blue jay and inexperienced jay had by no means overlapped till current years. Scientists say climate change has pushed extra animals into new areas, together with Texas. With each birds now present in the identical area, they had been capable of interbreed and produce the grue jay.
Inexperienced jays usually stay throughout Central America, and traditionally, their vary solely prolonged to the sides of South Texas. Blue jays, a extra widespread chicken within the U.S., as soon as had a variety that ended close to Houston. Shifting climate patterns have now created areas the place the 2 species overlap.
Discovering the Grue Jay
The grue jay was found in San Antonio.
Stokes says that, as a Ph.D. candidate finding out inexperienced jays in Texas. That’s the place he repeatedly monitored birding websites on social media to find birds for genetic analysis. From there, he would lure the birds, take blood samples, and launch them unhurt. After recognizing a photograph of an uncommon blue chicken close to San Antonio, he visited the house. Two days later, he managed to seize the chicken and acquire a pattern, resulting in the invention of the grue jay.
What are your ideas on this new chicken?