A Repopulation Lesson from the Black Robin

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There are several large land masses in the world, and Eurasia takes up a huge chunk. Japan is an island nation. SSE of there is the Philippines archipelago, south of that is Indonesia, and the South Pacific has many islands. Boom! Australia is the world's largest island, kind of startling among its smaller neighbors.

New Zealand is another island nation. It has a unique species of robin that has a different look and song than those in North America, and they are inquisitive. Mayhaps even friendly — making them susceptible to predation. Then there is the black robin.

On the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, the black robin was very close to extinction. Its survival has implications for Genesis Flood repopulation.
Black robin, Flickr / schmechf (CC BY-SA 2.0)
As New Zealand is dwarfed by Australia to the north, it dwarfs the Chatham Island archipelago to their east. It is considered a part of New Zealand. Anyway, they have a black robin that also is a nice guy. The little chirper is cute, too. Something cannot get much closer to the brink of extinction than these. There were only five left, with just one breeding pair.

In a feel-good true story of inspired conservation, the population bottleneck that was considered insurmountable was overcome. Black robins still need Batman to protect them as they are still very endangered, but they can breed without our help.

There is an empirical science lesson for Bible scoffers who say that the global Genesis Flood, with its eight humans (apparently three "breeding pairs") and the animals saved on the Ark were bottlenecks that could not be overcome. Black robins indicate otherwise. Also, Flood models from creation science maintain that there was much less genetic degradation at the time of the Flood, and God brought select animals to Noah to save.
One of the joys of a walk through the New Zealand bush is to be ‘found’ by a robin. These confident, inquisitive little birds will often accompany walkers along the track, feasting on bugs in the disturbed leaf litter and flitting from side to side only metres away from their human companions. Sadly, this cheeky confidence, as endearing as it is, also makes the birds vulnerable to predation from introduced species such as cats, rats, and stoats. Today, New Zealand robins only survive in areas that have intensive pest control measures in place.

The rest of the article is found at "The Chatham Island Black Robin." You'll thank me later.