How the Yellowhammer became a Kiwi -- from hero to villain in 15 years

(Pensoft Publishers) Yellowhammers are small, colorful and apparently innocuous birds, but they were once considered to be enemies by farmers in New Zealand. Yellowhammers were introduced there to help fight insect crop pests, but instead became pests themselves. A new study published in the open access journal NeoBiota, uses newspapers and documents from the 19th century to reconstruct the history of how the yellowhammer went from hero to villain in New Zealand in just 15 years.

Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - January 16, 2015 Category: Biology Source Type: news