The Kakapo is a critically endangered bird located in New Zealand, who's numbers have rebounded recently from a mere 86 to 91. The reason it has been so hard to bring this critically endangered bird's numbers up is because the females only breed when rimu trees fruit is at it's heaviest, which occurs only every three to five years.

Mathematicians have seemed to find a way around this problem with a mathematical tool, called the geometric framework for nutrition. With this tool they are able to compare with a geometric model, the balance of nutrients needed by the Kakapo and the balance of nutrients in the foods they are eating. This model has been used to analyse dietary components and their consequences for other birds as well as humans, spiders, insects and fish.

Before this model, conservationists thought that protein-enriched food supplements were needed to enhance breeding for the Kakapos. After years of trying this approach, however, the protein-enriched foods do not seem to be doing the trick. This mathematical tool now shows that Calsium is needed to strengthen the egg shell as well as the bird's unusually large skeleton. Rimu fruit contains high levels of calcium, which might be the reason that kakapo breed only when these are abundant.

With this tool, scientists will be able to determine the correct amount of calcium that will lead to more regular breeding and grow the population. A new test will be done to see if a carefully-refined supplement based the analysis of Dr. Raubenheimer, the doctor leading this project, may be done as soon as February if no breeding (masting) takes place before then.

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news139495799.html

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