Plains Wanderer

Plains Wanderer
Conservation status
Endangered
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Charadriformes Family: Pedionomidae Bonaparte, 1856 Genus: Pedionomus Species: P. torquatus
Binomial name
Pedionomus torquatus Gould, 1841

The Plains Wanderer, Pedionomus torquatus, is a unique bird and is put in a family of its own. It is endemic to Australia.

Description

This is a quail-like ground bird, measuring 15–19 cm. The adult male is light brown above, with fawn-white underparts with black crescents. The adult female has a distinctive white-spotted black collar.

Taxomony

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.

Conservation Status

Population decline has been caused by the conversion of native grasslands to cultivation.

International

This bird is listed as an endangered species on the 2007 IUCN Red List.

Australia

Plains Wanderers are listed as vulnerable on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Their conservation status also varies from state to state within Australia. For example:

• The Plains Wanderer is listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988).^[1] Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared.^[2]

References

1. ^ Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria
2. ^ Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria

• BirdLife International (2006). Pedionomus torquatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map, a brief justification of why this species is endangered, and the criteria used

• 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. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00098-8 (HTML abstract)

• Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): Phylogeny and classification of birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.

• Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004): A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny. BMC Evol. Biol. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28 PDF fulltext Supplementary Material

• van Tuinen, Marcel; Waterhouse, David & Dyke, Gareth J. (2004): Avian molecular systematics on the rebound: a fresh look at modern shorebird phylogenetic relationships. Journal of Avian Biology 35(3): 191-194. PDF fulltext

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