Kiwi birds had no need for eyes

Kiwi birds had no need for eyes

Not all birds need vision — to such conclusion the ornithologists who discovered New Zealand’s blind, but perfectly healthy kiwi.

Lost the ability to see the birds were found in the study, 160 brown kiwi, living in the woods Okarito in the South island of New Zealand. Now researchers do not exclude that in the future, night birds may lose vision. Instead, they will use other senses: touch, smell and hearing. While maintaining good eyesight can be a waste of energy.

“We found a lot of birds with eye injuries. A third of them had problems with the eyes,” said Alan Tennyson from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.

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