Plains-wanderer

The plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus) is a bird, the only representative of family Pedionomidae and genus Pedionomus. It is endemic to Australia. The majority of the remaining population is found in the Riverina region of New South Wales.

Plains-wanderer
female
male
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Suborder: Thinocori
Family: Pedionomidae
Bonaparte, 1856
Genus: Pedionomus
Gould, 1841
Species:
P. torquatus
Binomial name
Pedionomus torquatus
Gould, 1841

Description

The plains-wanderer is a quail-like ground bird, measuring 15–19 cm. It is such an atypical bird that it is placed in an entire family of its own, Pedionomidae. The adult male is light brown above, with fawn-white underparts with black crescents. The adult female is substantially larger than the male, and has a distinctive white-spotted black collar. They have excellent camouflage, and will first hide at any disturbance. If approached too closely, they will run rather than fly, at which they are very poor. Females lay four eggs, which the male then incubates.[2]

Taxonomy

It was formerly believed to be related to the buttonquails and thus placed in the gamebird order Galliformes or with the cranes and rails in Gruiformes. DNA-DNA hybridization and RAG-1 sequence data places it as a wader related to the jacanas (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, Paton et al. 2003, Thomas et al. 2004, van Tuinen et al. 2004). It thus represents a remarkable case of morphological convergence, or perhaps it is simply extremely plesiomorphic in morphology (the buttonquails, meanwhile, having turned out to be a very basal offshoot of the wader radiation). In the latter case, this would mean that the jacanas, painted snipe and seedsnipes – all ecologically very different birds – all evolved from birds very similar to the living plains-wanderer.

Status and conservation

Population decline has been caused by the conversion of native grasslands to cultivation and intensive predation by the introduced fox — the species' ground-nesting habits, poor flying ability, and tendency to run rather than fly from predators make it easy prey for the fox.[3] Sites identified by BirdLife International as being important for plains-wanderer conservation are Boolcoomatta, Bindarrah and Kalkaroo Stations in north-eastern South Australia, Diamantina and Astrebla Grasslands in western Queensland, Patho Plains in northern Victoria and the Riverina Plains in New South Wales.[4]

International

This bird is listed as Endangered on the 2022 IUCN Red List.[1]

Australia

Plains-wanderers are listed as critically endangered under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Their conservation status varies from state to state within Australia:[5]

A 2018 study ranked it sixth in a list of Australian birds most likely to go extinct.[6]

Conservation efforts

A captive population was established in late 2018 within a purpose-built facility containing 30 aviaries at Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. These captive individuals will form an insurance population as part of a breed-and-release program to support the wild population, as part of the national conservation plan for the species.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Plains-wanderer". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 7 January 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  2. Archibald, George W. (1991). Forshaw, Joseph (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-85391-186-6.
  3. Baker‐Gabb, David; Antos, Mark; Brown, Geoff (2016). "Recent decline of the critically endangered Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus), and the application of a simple method for assessing its cause: major changes in grassland structure". Ecological Management & Restoration. 17 (3): 235–242. doi:10.1111/emr.12221. ISSN 1442-8903.
  4. "Plains-wanderer". Important Bird Areas. BirdLife International. 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  5. "Pedionomus torquatus — Plains-wanderer". Species Profile and Threats Database. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Australian Government. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  6. Geyle, Hayley M.; Woinarski, John C. Z.; et al. (20 April 2018). "Quantifying extinction risk and forecasting the number of impending Australian bird and mammal extinctions". Pacific Conservation Biology. 24 (2): 157–167. doi:10.1071/PC18006. ISSN 2204-4604. Retrieved 11 July 2022. PDF
  7. "Dubbo Zoo welcomes two critically endangered chicks". Daily Liberal. 14 April 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2020.

Further reading
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