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Inger Perkins is leading efforts to find a New Zealand bird called the South Island kokako.

According to Perkins, the kokako has a call with a “haunting melody” that she and other scientists are trying to capture with acoustic recorders.

A photo or video of the kokako is also necessary, though, “to confirm that the bird still exists,” Perkins said.

She says the kokako and other native birds have struggled to survive in the country since rats, stoats and possums arrived with European and other settlers beginning hundreds of years ago.

Although Perkins’s team has been searching for the kokako for more than 40 years, she is optimistic that it can be rediscovered and protected.