Quail on Auckland's Tiritiri Matangi Island are not remnants of a New Zealand species extinct for more than 100 years, a Massey university researcher has discovered.
The birds were suspected of being survivors of the New Zealand quail, but they were actually genetically identical to Australian brown quail, PhD researcher Mark Seabrook-Davison from the Institute of Natural Sciences at Albany said.
He made the discovery after a two-year project analysing ancient DNA from museum specimens of the extinct New Zealand quail and living Australian brown quails.
New Zealand quail were declared extinct by 1875.
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The Australian brown quail was introduced as a game bird to replace it.
