Uncommon hybrid chook present in San Antonio yard

AUSTIN, Texas – A uncommon hybrid chook was found in a suburb northeast of San Antonio, based on biologists on the University of Texas at Austin.

The chook is a pure results of a inexperienced jay and a blue jay’s mating, a Thursday news release states. Biologists stated this chook “may be among the first examples of a hybrid animal that exists because of recent changing patterns in the climate.”

“We think it’s the first observed vertebrate that’s hybridized as a result of two species both expanding their ranges due, at least in part, to climate change,” stated Brian Stokes, a graduate pupil in ecology, evolution and habits at UT and first writer of the examine.

Stokes research inexperienced jays in Texas. While monitoring a number of social media websites the place birders share images of their sightings, he got here throughout a grainy image of an “odd-looking blue bird” that was posted by a lady on the Northeast Side.

“It was vaguely like a blue jay, but clearly different,” the discharge said.

Stokes was invited to the birder’s yard to seize the chook for analysis.

“Stokes took a quick blood sample of this strange bird, banded its leg to help relocate it in the future, and then let it go,” based on the discharge.

“I don’t know what it was, but it was kind of like random happenstance,” Stokes stated. “If it had gone two houses down, probably it would have never been reported anywhere.”

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