Partridges, Quails, Francolins, Snowcocks, Guineafowl, and Turkeys

Box 1.1. The Convention on Biological Diversity.
Key articles relating to the conservation of
biodiversity.
• Article 6: General measures of conservation and
sustainable use
Requires the development of national strategies, plans, or
programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity.
• Article 7: Identification and monitoring
Requires the identification and monitoring of biodiversity
and of impacts upon it. It also considers the knowledge
necessary for conservation and sustainable use.
• Article 8: In situ conservation (i.e., conservation of
biological diversity within natural habitats and
ecosystems)
Requires the management of biodiversity where it occurs
naturally, and includes the need for protected areas and the
needs of threatened species.
• Article 9: Ex situ conservation (i.e., conservation of
biological diversity outside natural habitats)
Requires the management of biodiversity in places such as
zoos and botanical gardens. It also deals with collection
from the wild.
Biological Diversity are to ensure the conservation of
biodiversity, its sustainable use, and the equal sharing of
benefits from its use. There are four key articles that are
relevant to the activities of the PQF Specialist Group (see
Box 1.1).
In order to convert species information and conservation
recommendations that flow from the activities outlined
above into action, there is a need to identify which
administrative level is most appropriate for implementation.
The global importance of this convention is demonstrated
in several ways. The first is the degree to which many
countries are developing or have developed national
biodiversity strategies and action plans as required under
Article 6. The first step in this process is the production of
a biodiversity assessment for a country.
In concert with the rest of the Galliformes Specialist
Groups there is a clear need to ensure that accurate
information on partridges, quails, francolins, snowcocks,
guineafowl, and turkeys is made available to such national
biodiversity assessments. This Action Plan, and all the
supporting data used to produce it, should contain this.
Subsequently, we must bring all available expertise to bear
on the resulting national conservation recommendations
as they affect threatened species.
Monitoring effects of conservation action
Systematic monitoring of populations is an essential tool
for detecting changes in the status of a species at particular
sites over long periods of time, and should always be used
to assess the effectiveness of conservation actions. Careful
thought must be given to the design of monitoring
programmes, ideally through initial assessments of count
reliability that include correlating results of index counts
with detailed counts at appropriate times of year.
Call counts have proved to be appropriate for deriving
relative abundance indices of vocal Galliformes even
though the results may be of limited general utility
(Khaling et al. 1998). Such a study by Khan and Chaudhry
(1999) on two francolin species in Pakistan showed
a significant relationship between call counts and
attempted absolute counts using line drives. Indices
generated through call counts (during breeding seasons)
and transect walks (outside breeding seasons) also showed
close agreement in painted francolin in Gujarat, India
(Kaul and Howman 1992), suggesting the utility of both
methods in designing monitoring protocols for other
Galliformes. Difficulties in using line transects may be
experienced, especially in hilly terrain where assumptions
of line transect theory are violated. In such situations, use
of encounter rates has been suggested as an alternative
index of abundance.
In Pipar, Nepal, populations of Galliformes have been
monitored for about 20 years (Howman and Garson
1993). Although counts at regular intervals have provided
data to monitor changes in populations of these birds, it
is suspected that lack of consistent methodology and
observer bias (different teams or individuals on each
survey) may have made the figures less reliable
for comparisons between years (R. Kaul in litt.). Such
problems illustrate how difficult and labour intensive
this work can be, but the potential benefits of longterm
and well-designed monitoring programmes are
immense. Study sites established in Asia are amenable to
long-term monitoring mainly because protocols are
established and areas are demarcated. Some form of
population monitoring has been recommended for five
species in this Action Plan.
Summary of conservation action
The PQF Specialist Group has concluded that of the
different actions considered, the most urgent in terms of
assisting threatened species conservation are surveys (23
of the 24 threatened species), habitat protection (17 species),
large-scale assessments (10 species), basic biological
research (nine species), and conservation awareness
programmes (six species).
Although, at present, the remaining 121 species are not
considered in need of conservation action on a global
scale, action may already be needed locally to prevent
them from becoming extinct in certain parts of their
ranges. As the vast majority of partridges, quails,
francolins, snowcocks, guineafowl, and turkeys are very
poorly known in the wild, these species at lower risk
present an ideal opportunity for research training. For
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