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

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Foreword The WPA/BirdLife/SSC Partridge, Quail, and Francolin Specialist Group has been in existence since 1991 and has made phenomenal strides in understanding populations and threats to the 140+ species in this group. The Specialist Group (SG) has been involved with the World Pheasant Association and the Pheasant Specialist Group in two International Galliformes Conferences in Pakistan and Malaysia. A third is planned for the year 2000 in Nepal. In addition, the SG co-sponsored a workshop on Latin American Galliformes with the Cracid Specialist Group. We have undertaken some re-organisation of the SG to better reflect the diverse membership of the group, which presently represents 40+ countries. Most recently, the SG has added the Meleagridae (North American turkeys) to the rather eclectic group of species we already administer (partridges, quails, francolins, snowcocks, and guineafowl). One of the most important undertakings of this group was the publication of the first Action Plan in 1995. What many of us found in compiling that plan was that we knew very little about many of the species we were supposed to be helping. The effort also allowed members of the SG and others to focus on particular species or groups of species, or even regions for research and conservation efforts. Although many of our assessments were based on poor data and are probably off base, I believe that effort was worthwhile because we gave people a starting point and some frames of reference. Now, the first Action Plan has reached the end of its life. Holding to our desire to have the plan be a living document rather than something static, we developed the second five-year plan. This new effort has demonstrated how far we have come. A number of species, such as the bearded wood-partridge of Mexico and the Nahan’s francolin of Uganda, were virtually unknown in 1995. The latter has now been the subject of an intensive Ph.D. study and now probably ranks as one of the better-studied tropical species. The former was thought to be Critically Endangered in 1995, but has now been downgraded because a number of new populations has been found. The new Action Plan also reflects evolving philosophies. Our collaboration with BirdLife in the recent publication of Threatened Birds of the World and their forthcoming Threatened Birds of Asia, as well as our closer collaboration on production of the Action Plan has helped to eliminate redundancy in conservation assessments. In addition, this has helped use the resources available to the two groups more efficiently. Finally, the Action Plan effort has forced us to think about issues that are important for conservation of these species. Not all have been resolved but, hopefully, progress has been made. Questions, such as what to do about subspecies or how to approach sustainable harvest issues, and issues of species management versus ecosystem management still need more work. This Action Plan is meant to be used as a tool. I urge anyone who reads it to think about it in that way and consider how he or she might use it to accomplish its purpose, which is the conservation of partridges, quails, francolins, snowcocks, guineafowl, and turkeys. Please use it to help focus research or conservation projects, use it to help obtain funding, and, most of all please use the knowledge that you obtain to help us produce an even better Action Plan in the future. Dr. John P. Carroll, Chair, IUCN-SSC/BirdLife/WPA Partridge, Quail, and Francolin Specialist Group, Daniel B. Warnell School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. v
Acknowledgements This Action Plan is based on information, expertise, and advice contributed by many members of the Partridge, Quail, and Francolin (PQF) Specialist Group and others interested in the conservation of partridges, quails, francolins, snowcocks, guineafowl, and turkeys. We are extremely grateful to BirdLife International for providing species accounts from their landmark publication Threatened Birds of the World and the forthcoming Threatened Birds of Asia, developed through an extensive review process involving the BirdLife Partnership, the PQF Specialist Group, the World Pheasant Association, and a worldwide network of ornithologists co-ordinated by the BirdLife Secretariat. We have benefited greatly from this fruitful collaboration with BirdLife and look forward to continuing our relationship. We thank everyone who contributed information and opinions during the process of reviewing the species accounts and, in particular, would like to thank the members of the BirdLife Secretariat team at Cambridge: Dave Capper, Nigel Collar, Mike Crosby, Pete Davidson, Isabel Isherwood, Malcolm Starkey, Sue Shutes, Alison Stattersfield, and Joe Tobias. In addition, Alison Stattersfield provided sensitive coordination and communication throughout the process. The World Pheasant Association provided logistical and financial support during the preparation of this Action Plan, including funds for the employment of Richard Fuller. We are particularly grateful to the following for contributing and reviewing text: Nicholas Aebischer, Robert Atkins, Leon Bennun, Simon Dowell, Christine Dranzoa, Jack Clinton Eitniear, Jonathan Eames, Steve Edwards, Luo Hong-Ren, Carol Inskipp, Salim Javed, Rahul Kaul, Guy Kirwan, Rab Nawaz, Roald Potapov, Gary Robbins, Alfred Simiyu, Manon Tentij, Xianji Wen, and Gao Yu-ren. To the following, we extend our thanks for advice and information received during the course of the compiling process: Martin Adamian, Ashfaque Ahmed, Han Assink, Donald Bruning, Françoise Burhenne, Keith Chalmers- Watson, Susie Ellis, Jon Fjeldså, Peter Flint, Peter Garson, Dipankar Ghose, Anne-Marie Gillesberg, Mariano Gimenez-Dixon, Jeff Gordon, Graham Hall, Alain Hennache, Derek Holmes, Keith Howman, Linette Humphrey, N. Krabbe, Suresh Kumar, Anni Lukács, Georgina Mace, L. Olarte, Derek Pomeroy, Asad Rahmani, Ettore Randi, L. Renfijo, Alison Rosser, Christine Sheppard, S. Sathyakumar, C. Sharpe, Pratap Singh, Pritpal Singh Soorae, Simon Tonge, Jack Tordoff, Bas van Balen, Roland van Bocxstaele, Carola von Conrad, Rebecca Webb, Geoff and Hilary Welch, Roger Wilkinson, Nurul Winarni, Mengistu Wondafrash, Lu Xin, and Zhang Zhengwang. We would also like to thank Lynx Edicions for granting us permission to use the fine illustrations from their Handbook of Birds of the World to accompany this document. We are also grateful to David Mead for other illustrations. Bearded wood-partridge. This Vulnerable species is confined to a few sites in eastern Mexico. Illustration: David Mead vi
Page 1 and 2: Status Survey and Conservation Acti
Page 3 and 4: The designation of geographical ent
Page 5: Project 5. Assessing the conservati
Page 9 and 10: Chapter 1 The Conservation of Partr
Page 11 and 12: guineafowl held in Pakistan (1992)
Page 13 and 14: eductions in numbers or even extirp
Page 15 and 16: The Species Survival Commission of
Page 17 and 18: this work could be developed over t
Page 19 and 20: Georgia and northern Florida in the
Page 21 and 22: Box 1.1. The Convention on Biologic
Page 23 and 24: Chapter 2 Summary of the Conservati
Page 25 and 26: 2.2 Endangered species The followin
Page 27 and 28: Box 2.4 Criteria for Vulnerable (VU
Page 29 and 30: The following 121 species are consi
Page 31 and 32: Species Distribution Justification
Page 33 and 34: Species Distribution Justification
Page 35 and 36: Conservation: Part of Forêt du Day
Page 37 and 38: • Extend the Virunga National Par
Page 39 and 40: population is estimated at 100-1,00
Page 41 and 42: Chongoroi was recommended in the ea
Page 43 and 44: occupancy has been estimated at 160
Page 45 and 46: should have lessened the pressure o
Page 47 and 48: Dark-backed wood-quail (Odontophoru
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 4 Five-year Plan of Action
Page 51 and 52: Resources: Assuming that most advic
Page 53 and 54: Justification: There has been a con
Page 55 and 56: ace merlini of the chestnut-necklac
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populations and quality of remainin
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al. 1999), and there is now a need
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References Adams, J. 1989. Bhutan:
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Hennache, A., Randi, E., and Lucchi
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Robson, C.R., Eames, J.C., Nguyên
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Appendix 1 List of Contacts World P
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Partridges, Quails, Francolins, Snowcocks, Guineafowl, and Turkeys

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