A preliminary study of the genetic differences in New Zealand oystercatcher species

Abstract

The taxonomy of New Zealand oyster‐catchers is controversial. Some authorities assign full species status to all three oystercatcher taxa breeding in New Zealand, whereas others classify the variable oystercatcher as a full species and the Chatham island oystercatcher and South island pied oystercatcher as distinct only at the subspecies level. The debate is not just of academic interest, as the IUCN lists the Chatham island oystercatcher as endangered and the New Zealand department of Conservation has carried an intensive management programme to conserve it. We obtained genetic data from four regions of the mitochondrial genome of all three taxa, and found support for classifying the Chatham island and South island pied oystercatchers as full species, rather than subspecies. © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2007.