HI ALL:
Lets add "California Raven" to our lists?
Sincerely

Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen
Bainbridge Is., WA, USA
ipaulsen at linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
"Rallidae all the way"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 22:56:21 -0500
From: Barry K. MacKay <mimus at SYMPATICO.CA>
To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] California Ravens Are A Breed (race? species?) Apart

Um...Corvus corax californicus, anyone?


News Release
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey

For Release: Contacts:
EMBARGOED Gloria Maender
12/22/00

Address:
6000 J Street, Placer Hall
Sacramento, CA 95819-6129

Phone: Email:
520-670-5596 gloria_maender at usgs.gov

Also available on the Internet at:
http://www.usgs.gov/public/press/public_affairs/press_releases/index.html
California Ravens Are a Breed Apart

NOTE TO EDITORS:
Downloadable photos can be found at:
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/news/=85..(captions/credits)

The common raven in California is not so common after all, according to a
team of scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and other research
institutions involved in new genetics research. DNA sequence data revealed =
a
deep genetic split between common ravens from the southwest United States
compared to the rest of the world, according to a journal article in the
December 22 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London,
Biological Sciences.

Common ravens range over nearly the entire Northern Hemisphere, and acros=
s
their range, the scientists noted there are no differences in the birds'
appearance. By sampling 72 common ravens from around the world, however,
they found two distinct genetic groups, which they labeled the "California
clade" and the "Holarctic clade."

"The California raven looks like any other common raven worldwide, but
genetically it's very different," said research ecologist Dr. William I.
Boarman of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center. "We have found that
ravens from Minnesota, Maine and Alaska are more similar to ravens from Asi=
a
and Europe than they are to ravens from California."

"The split probably started through geographic isolation over 2 million
years ago, from glaciation during the ice age. When the two forms came back
together after the ice age, individual birds may have chosen to continue to
mate with only their own type, thus maintaining the two groups," said
Boarman.

"The two clades come in contact with each other over an unusually large
area of the western United States, with mixtures of the two groups present
in Washington, Idaho and California," said team member Dr. Kevin Omland,
professor of biology at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "However,
future research will be required to determine if the two groups are one or
two species, or whether they may be remerging into a single clade."

An additional finding of the genetic research is that the Chihuahuan
raven, a geographically restricted species of the southwest United States
and Mexico, is more closely related to the California group than to the
cosmopolitan common ravens. "The Chihuahuan raven appears to split from the
California clade approximately 1 million years ago," said another team
member, Dr. Robert C. Fleischer, conservation geneticist with the National
Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution.
Ravens -- 2

Boarman studies ravens in the Mojave Desert, where over the last 30 years
their numbers have risen by more than 1,000 percent, subsidized by human
populations that have expanded into the desert. His raven research relates
to the federally-threatened desert tortoise and management questions
regarding how to prevent hungry ravens from decimating young tortoises.

"I was looking at local genetic structuring as a way of gauging the
amount of movement of ravens around the desert," said Boarman. "I wanted to
use some distant birds outside my group to provide a reference point for ho=
w
much genetic variance to look for. That's when we discovered the big
difference in ravens, and delved further."

Boarman said this discovery will be particularly important to systematist=
s
and biogeographers, but also to agencies responsible for managing raven
populations where they are endangered, such as in Kentucky, or where they
have become pests, such as in the Mojave Desert. Birding enthusiasts may
also find interesting the possibility of having two raven species that look
identical but that are actually quite different at the genetic level.

The two other coauthors of "Cryptic genetic variation and paraphyly in
ravens" are Dr. Cheryl Tarr at Pennsylvania State University and Dr. John
Marzluff at the University of Washington.

As the nation's largest water, earth and biological science and civilian
mapping agency, the USGS works in cooperation with more than 2,000
organizations across the country to provide reliable, impartial, scientific
information to resource managers, planners, and other customers. This
information is gathered in every state by USGS scientists to minimize the
loss of life and property from natural disasters, contribute to the sound
conservation, economic and physical development of the nation's natural
resources, and enhance the quality of life by monitoring water, biological,
energy and mineral resources.


***USGS***

_______________---


Barry Kent MacKay
Markham, ON., Canada