The species question

This question pops up again and again during my Molecular Ecology revision. It talks of determining the molecular identify of koalas and petrels, and more case studies about animals being ascribed to a new species or one being redefined as not a species, but a subspecies. And so on and so forth.

Just now in the email, someone from the Oriental Birding group sent through a list detailing new common names and taxanomic changes in Asian birds, following the lead from Rasmussen & Anderton (2005).

I have to delete some scientific names from my mind... they no longer exist.

First on the list - the Cattle egret. Jane shall be disappointed to hear this, I'm sure. We always made fun of its name: Bulbulcus ibis ("Bulbul kiss ibis"). It's now Bulbulcus coromandus. The Changeable hawk-eagle's no longer a subspecies, but a species in its own right. Ditto for the Drongo Cuckoo, Large-tailed nightjar, Crimson sunbird, Black-headed munia, Hill myna, and Greater racket-tailed drongo. The same goes for the Black-tailed godwit, but that's still being debated it seems.

Birds which were given entirely new identifications are the Pacific swallow, no longer Hirundo tahitica but H. domicola, Laced woodpecker (Picus vittatus > P. viridanus), and Purple-throated sunbird (Nectarinia sperata > Leptocoma brasiliana).

I don't understand what's happening to the crows. The former Large-billed crow, Eastern jungle crow, and Indian jungle crow are now collectively known simply as the Large-billed crow, but the binomial of each are allotted a subspecies name.

Birds don't care. Even if they knew, they wouldn't make a fuss out of their change in status anyway. Those which were half are now a whole. And those whole which are now halves, or one-thirds... well... at least when it comes to conservation, their whole species mightn't have been that critically endangered after all.

Oh, and something else. Yesterday in the library, I found out that the Striated heron (previously known as the Little heron, and before I started birding, was known as the Green heron), is called the Mangrove heron in the UK. Thank goodness for scientific names. Butorides striatus... that simple!

posted by Husky @ 5/26/2005 11:58:00 PM  |