The plains-wanderer ( Pedionomus torquatus) is an atypical species of wading bird, the Monotypic taxon of family Pedionomidae and genus Pedionomus. It is endemic to Australia. Its historic range included much of eastern Australia, including Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, but in recent years, it has become endangered with remaining known populations concentrated in the Riverina region of New South Wales and western Queensland.[
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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.
Taxonomy
It was formerly believed to be related to the and thus placed in the gamebird order Galliformes or with the cranes and rails in Gruiformes. DNA–DNA hybridization and RAG-1 DNA sequence data places it as a wader related to the jacanas.
Status and conservation
Population decline has been caused by the conversion of native to cultivation and intensive predation by the introduced Red 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.
A crucial aspect of Plains-wanderer conservation is their habitat needs. They require grasslands with both open and denser vegetation for foraging and roosting, which is essential for their survival and recovery.
International
This bird is listed as Endangered on the 2022 IUCN Red List.[
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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:
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New South Wales: Endangered, under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (NSW) (February 2022 list)
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Queensland: Critically Endangered, under Nature Conservation (Animals) Regulation 2020 (November 2021 list)
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South Australia: Endangered, under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 (January 2020 list)
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Victoria: Critically Endangered, under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (October 2021 list)
A 2018 study ranked it sixth in a list of Australian birds most likely to go extinct.[ PDF]
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.
See also
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Pualco Range Conservation Park
Further reading
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Paton, T. A.; Baker, A. J.; Groth, J. G. & Barrowclough, G. F. (2003): "RAG-1 sequences resolve phylogenetic relationships within charadriiform birds". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29: 268–278. ; (HTML abstract).
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Charles Sibley & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
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Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004): "A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny". BMC journals 4: 28. . . Supplementary material.
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van Tuinen, Marcel; Waterhouse, David & Dyke, Gareth J. (2004): PDF "Avian molecular systematics on the rebound: a fresh look at modern shorebird phylogenetic relationships". Journal of Avian Biology 35(3): 191–194.
External links
