Pheasants: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan ... - IUCN

• Establish a protected area in the Net River watershed.
• Support full establishment of Ke Go Nature Reserve.
• Promote food security projects in the communes within
Ke Go Nature Reserve that are most dependent on
natural resources.
• Initiate a local poster campaign to increase conservation
awareness of Annamese lowland Lophura pheasants.
• Manage the captive population to the highest standards.
Bornean peacock-pheasant
(Polyplectron schleiermacheri)
Endangered C1; C2a
This elusive species’ threat status is difficult to judge, but
recent anecdotal evidence regarding its status and habitat
indicates that it has a very small, fragmented, and declining
population, justifying its classification as Endangered.
Range and population: The Bornean peacock-pheasant is
endemic to Borneo, where it is known from Sabah (Gore
1968) and Sarawak (Fogden 1965, Harrison 1965),
Malaysia and Kalimantan, Indonesia. A 1996 questionnaire
survey of 97 villages across central Kalimantan found that
two-thirds of these communities described it as rare or
very rare, whilst one-third considered that it was fairly
common, with feathers of the species produced at four
locations. Eighty-five percent of all interviewees felt that
it had declined (O’Brien et al. 1998). There are single
recent reports from Danum Valley and Ulu Tongod
(Sabah), Nangatayap (near Gunung Palung National Park,
west Kalimantan) (Holmes 1989), Muarakarum/
Palangkaraya, central Kalimantan (van Balen and Holmes
1993), and local reports from Sukau (Sabah) (J.G. Corder
in litt.).
Ecology: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses
indicate that it inhabits lowland plain and lowland
dipterocarp forest on moderately fertile soils, probably
avoiding wetter substrates in swamp forest or near
waterbodies (O’Brien et al. 1998). Local people in the
Danum–Linau area report that the species occurs between
300m and 1,000m (Fogden 1965).
Threats: Habitat loss, degradation, fragmentation as a
result of large-scale commercial logging (even within
protected areas) and widespread clearance for plantations
of rubber and oil palm, as well as hunting with snares are
the main threats in central Kalimantan (O’Brien et al.
1998). The full impact of the major fires of 1997–98 has
still to be assessed, but drought fires appear to be increasing
in frequency and severity. Together with logging, they
could destroy all dryland lowland forest by 2010 (D.A.
Holmes in litt.). In central Kalimantan, most remaining
lowland forest is granted to logging concessions, with a
mere one percent currently afforded any protected status
(O’Brien et al. 1998).
Conservation: CITES Appendix II. In central Kalimantan,
a questionnaire was distributed to 97 villages in 1996. An
increase in the area of protected lowland forest
encompassed by the Bukit Raya National Park has also
been proposed (O’Brien et al. 1998).
Targets:
• Conduct field surveys to determine habitat and major
population centres for the species.
• Recommend protected area status for any sites found to
support substantial populations.
• Support the proposed extension of Bukit Raya National
Park, central Kalimantan.
• Promote the concept of Forest Management Units in
Sabah (99-year concessions of great size).
• Assist forest managers in habitat identification and
zoning of concession areas.
• Promote prohibition of hunting by logging company
employees.
3.3 Vulnerable species
Western tragopan
(Tragopan melanocephalus)
Vulnerable C1; C2a
This species is classified as Vulnerable because its sparsely
distributed small population is declining and becoming
increasingly fragmented in the face of continuing forest loss
and degradation throughout its restricted range.
Range and population: The western tragopan is endemic to
the western Himalayas, occurring from Kohistan district,
northern Pakistan, east through Kashmir (Rath 1999)
into Himachal Pradesh (Gaston et al. 1981) and possibly
Uttar Pradesh, northwest India. Although historically
described as scarce and local, it has undoubtedly declined.
A mid-1980s population estimate of 1,600–4,800 birds
(Gaston et al. 1983b) was revised in the mid-1990s to
about 5,000 birds (McGowan and Garson 1995) following
the discovery of several significant populations in northern
Pakistan, the largest of which (tentatively estimated at 325
pairs) is in Palas Valley (Bean et al. 1994).
Ecology: During the breeding season (April–June), it
inhabits little-disturbed, temperate coniferous and
deciduous forests, from 2,400–3,600m (Gaston et al. 1981,
Islam and Crawford 1986). In winter, it makes very local
altitudinal or lateral movements to grassy or shrubby
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