A very rare Cabit chick (a Cahow / Rabbit hybrid) has once again been seen on Nonsuch Island!
Shorty after Bermuda was settled in 1609 the Cahow population, already in decline was put under immense pressure by rats and the harvesting of eggs and birds by settlers for food, to the point that by 1620 they were thought to have gone extinct.
They were not seen again for 330 years until they were rediscovered in the 1950’s, having survived a near-bottleneck extinction event which is now thought to have resulted in cross species heterozygous offspring.
Historically rabbits from nearby Hen Island must have swum over to Nonsuch Island at some point pior the Airport being constructed in the 1940’s (which now separates the islands), and prior to the Cahows' rediscovery in 1951, when they were down to the last few pairs and forced to resort to hybridization to ensure their survival.
The gene for the ears has become recessive, only appearing every few generations (with the offspring named a "Cabit"), however all chicks in the colony still hatch with soft grey rabbit type fur instead of feathers, which they then molt prior to fledging. The Cahows have also retained the habit of nesting in deep underground burrows which they spend several seasons excavating with their mate.
Nonsuch Expeditions Founder J-P Rouja: This type of mystery is best resolved by Genomics and is one of the reasons why I co-founded BioQuest with Dr. Carika Weldon. Our local Lab and all local Team leverages genomics for conservation, and one of our signature projects the Cahow Genomic Population Study through which we aim to sequence the entire species, will help us identify which genes are at play here…
Dr. Carika Weldon Founder CariGenetics: “In biology a hybrid is mix of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera. Using genetics terminology, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the breeding of two genetically distinct individuals.
J-P Rouja “Back in the 1970's when I was a cub-scout we used to go camping on Hen Island in St. Georges which was still overrun with rabbits. Prior to the Airport being built in the 1940's it would have been a relatively easy swim for them to reach Nonsuch. We spent today trying to catch one so that we could take a DNA sample, however they are just too fast. Fortunately the CahowCam documented one back in 2017 so we have further proof of their existence.”
*AI Notice: Ai was NOT used to generate these images, the first sightings were in 2017 which pre-dates those capabilites. We are old-school and used photoshop, as opposed to the glue gun which matted the chicks fur :)