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Scientists have documented surprising sex reversals in Australian birds such as the kookaburra. <\/p>\n
SYDNEY – Scientists have documented a surprising rate of sex reversal in wild Australian birds, a phenomenon that could be explained by rising pollution or other environmental triggers.<\/p>\n
A study of five common Australian species, including kookaburras, magpies and lorikeets, found around six percent of birds had the chromosomes of one sex but the reproductive organs of another.<\/p>\n
The findings indicated a surprisingly high number of birds had reversed their sex after birth, said researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n
“This indicates that sex determination in wild birds is more fluid than we thought, and can persist into adulthood,” said study co-author Dominique Potvin.<\/p>\n
The study performed DNA tests on almost 500 birds.<\/p>\n
The overwhelming majority of sex reversals involved genetically female birds growing male gonads.<\/p>\n
“We also discovered a genetically male kookaburra who was reproductively active with large follicles and a distended oviduct, indicating recent egg production,” said Potvin.<\/p>\n
Sex reversal is well known in certain species of reptile and fish but is thought to be rare in wild birds and mammals.<\/p>\n
Scientists have documented how pollutants and even warm temperatures can trigger sex reversal in frogs.<\/p>\n
The cause of sex reversal in wild birds was not clear, the University of the Sunshine Coast study said.<\/p>\n
But it could be due to environmental factors, such as hormone-disrupting chemicals building up in wild areas.<\/p>\n
“Understanding how and why sex reversal occurs is vital for conservation and for improving the accuracy of bird research,” added Potvin.<\/p>\n
The study was published this week in peer-reviewed journal Biology Letters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUBLISHED : 14 Aug 2025 at 09:15 \u00a0 Small \u00a0 Medium \u00a0 Large Scientists have documented surprising sex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-67914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}