Figure 3. Individual identification from soil nanopore sequencing data.

(a–c) Distribution of haplotype agreement scores between all Whenua Hou kākāpō and (a) soil sample 3 (Moss’ display site), (b) soil sample 11 (Merv’s display site), and (c) soil sample 35 (Nora’s feeding station). (d) Mixing proportions [%; log10 scale] and (e) posterior means of individual assignment per sample (y-axis) assessed through Bayesian inference of individual assignments (see Materials and methods). The heatmaps show Sinbad’s omnipresent signal in the first column, the best hit when disregarding Sinbad in the second column, the second-best hit in the third column, and the mean values of all remaining Whenua Hou kākāpō in the last column.

Figure 3—figure supplement 1. Stamen terrain map of the sampling sites of the three soil samples 3 (Moss’ site), 11 (Merv’s site), and 35 (Nora’s site), and of the radio transmitter signal receiver that recorded Sinbad’s presence far away from his home range (‘Sinbad’s bowl’) and in the middle of the sampling sites, on February 24, 2019, three days before our sampling efforts.

A terrain map with blurred contour lines is used to not disclose the exact home ranges of the individuals of this critically endangered species.