Kauai is home to thousands of wild chickens, a particular variety that’s vibrant in plumage but of mixed value to the ecosystem of the island. They eat the venomous centipedes native to Kauai, a trait that people seem to like, but they have no natural predators besides pet cats and dogs, and the population is growing at an alarming rate. Some have even moved to other islands in the archipelago, like Oahu, where they’re not so welcome. But a team of researchers from Michigan State University is interested in the birds for an unexpected reason. Is it possible that the Hawaiian chicken could lead to hardier varieties of birds?

All domestic chickens are descendants of a bird called the red junglefowl, native to various parts of, mostly, Southeast Asia. Domestic chickens these days are mostly so far removed from the red junglefowl that they can hardly be compared with it, but the Hawaiian chickens are a little bit different. Polynesians brought red junglefowl with them when they settled Hawaii, and only cross-bred them with domestic chickens following Captain Cook’s landing on the archipelago in 1778. So the Hawaiian chickens are pretty recently developed from their wild form.