Learning From The Kagu

As I was working through a list of terms I wanted to master, I came across kagu. I wearily decided it must be one of those trees or birds or fishes that swarmed in remote waters or climbed in far-off trees, and I wondered for a moment why God had made the world such a diverse place, and how that diversity made it a particular challenge for those who want to learn all the words. But then, when I decided to remove the focus from myself and actually let the kagu teach me, I was touched by its beauty and the way that it has been brought back from the brink of extinction in the past two decades.

Just the Facts, Man

One could begin, as the Wikpedia articles does, simply by narrating facts about this bird, its Linnaean classification information, habitat, foods, mating patterns, description, etc. Indeed, by so doing you learn a lot. It is a grallatorial bird "of unusual type, peculiar to New Caledonia." The Grallatores are an order of birds, consisting of long-legged wading birds, such as the crane and heron. Actually the Latin word grallator means "one who walks on stilts," and grallae are stilts. That is what it looks like, indeed!

Well, we learn that the kagu, pictured here, is a long-legged blue-greyish bird, Rhynochetos jubatus, that lives in the remote areas of that remote land. It is the lone surviving member of the Rhynochetidae family. The Greek word rhyno means "nose" and chetos/chaetos means "hair." Jubate is an English word, derived from the Latin jubatus, at it means "maned" or "having a mane." Thus, our kagu. A few things I discovered were that the kagus are exclusively carnivorous, feeding as they do on a variety of animals, though annelid words, snails and lizards are the most popular dietary choices. Though most animals in the natural world (humans included?) tend not to be monogamous or tend to practice what we might call "serial monogomy," the kagus are monogamous breeders, and each needs a territory of about 10-30 hectares in size in which to live.

The Wikipedia article also tells us that the kagu at one time was threatened with extinction. Apparently its remote location and the absence of western pets/animal pests until the Europeans arrived in the late 18th century, meant that it hadn't developed many skills to ward off European-style predators. Thus, with the introduction of cats, pigs, dogs and rats, which attacked the kagu, the kagu became nearly extinct. All that the article says is that it has "been the subject of highly dedicated conservation efforts" and that it is "doing well" in a few spots in New Caledonia.

Making it Personal

Well, I was almost ready to leave matters there and say that I had learned "enough" about the kagu never to be ignorant of it again, but then I discoverd this wonderful collection of pictures and narrative that gives a "personal" story about the kagu. It gives all the basic scientific information in the Wikipedia article, but it is written by someone who has spent time with the kagu, listened to them, tried to discover their habits and has met the person who "saved" the kagu. Rather than just describing energetic conservation efforts, he says:

"The dramatic turn in the fortunes of the Kagu is all due to one man, Yves Letocart...now the world's premier authority on the family. Yves has become the world expert on Kagu by hard work and experience, not training. He was born in New Caledonia of a French father & local mother and was a typical teenager, enjoying shooting birds & the introduced pigs, becoming interested in biology only during college. He arrived at Riviére Bleue in 1980. At that time there were only about 60 Kagu left in the remotest parts of the Park. Dogs, cats, stouts and other predators had extirpated them from the Riviére Bleue valley where visitors are allowed. Yves instituted a predator trapping & shooting program. In the mid-1980s a captive breeding program was initiated, and in 1989 Yves began radio-collaring birds at his study site to learn the basics of their breeding biology."

The author then talks about "my time with Yves" in the Parc du Rivere Bleue, where he learned to listen to the way Yves imitated the sound of a baby kagu in distress, which proved to be the lure to bring some adult kagus out of the forest. Because of Yves' effort, there now are about 200 kagus in the Parc itself, with many more on other remote sites in the island.

After reading this heart-warming narrative, I was rewarded with yet another word. The author said that they sought the kagu under the "Great Kaori" tree. Pictures of it are online, though not as many as one might think for this tree that takes, according to one site, nearly 2000 years to mature! And we think that adolescence is a long time... Not even the OED has an entry for kaori, but now I have another thing to put on my "to see and touch" list when I make my trip to the South Pacific.

Conclusion

Just last night I was reading about a British scientist who will be receiving an award today, and the topic of his acceptance speech will focus on the importance of having our "best minds" commit themselves to the "big problems" of the next generation, especially that of global warming. So, in his judgment, that is where the money and talent ought to go. I have no qualms with that, but the story of the kagu just narrated makes me a little hesitant just to jump on the scientist's bandwagon. What does it mean to have one of the "best minds" of our time? What is a good mind without a little bit of heart? And, as Yves no doubt discoverd, both of these aren't very effective unless you put in long hours and dedicate yourself to a task for years--in this case the preservation of the kagu.

I learned from the story of the kagu that there may be almost as much reason for trying to preserve ignored, endangered or far-off species of living creatures as for trying to "solve" global warming. Indeed, our lives are enriched because of the work of Yves. I think our "best minds," however we determine who they are, ought to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they would like to do. Of course monetary incentives can aid in this calculation. But let's not all rush into solving global warming. There have to be some of us left behind to take care of the millions of living creatures, including humans, that inhabit our planet.

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