Challenges for Research on the Spotted Quail-Thrush Cinclosoma Punctatum in North Queensland
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Australian Field Ornithology 2021, 38, 59–65 http://dx.doi.org/10.20938/afo38059065 Challenges for research on the Spotted Quail-thrush Cinclosoma punctatum in north Queensland Leo Joseph Australian National Wildlife Collection, National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO, G.P.O. Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] Abstract. A case is made for why researchers should consider the possibilities that the north Queensland population of Spotted Quail-thrush Cinclosoma punctatum discovered in 2008 may be neither geographically or genetically isolated nor taxonomically distinct. Field and museum work are clearly needed to address these questions as well as the biology of the north Queensland population itself. Introduction Ford 1983, and eBird (https://ebird.org/), and Atlas of Living Australia (http://www.ala.org), both accessed 29 March The Spotted Quail-thrush Cinclosoma punctatum 2021]. Blackdown Tableland has long been the northern (Passeriformes: Cinclosomatidae) is widespread in specimen-based recorded limit of C. p. punctatum and the south-eastern Australia (see Figure 1; Higgins 2002). population(s) there and nearby at Carnarvon National Park Generally, the species is moderately common in suitable including its Salvator Rosa section, for example, to date habitat. It is frequently observed despite being generally also appear isolated (Figure 1; Ford 1983; Higgins 2002). inconspicuous, cryptic and terrestrial. Overall, the species is of least conservation concern (e.g. Garnett et al. 2011; The ramifications of a population of Spotted Quail-thrush BirdLife International 2017) though it is extinct at the far having been first reported in north Queensland in 2008 in western extremity of its range in the Mount Lofty Ranges an area frequently visited by many resident ornithologists (subspecies C. p. anachoreta; see Figure 1; Paton et al. warrant careful consideration. Nielsen (2015) referred to 1994; Horton et al. 2013; van Weenen et al. in press). Two sightings from the 1970s of an unidentified quail-thrush subspecies are recognised among extant populations: Cinclosoma sp. at Mount Fox, 155 km south-east of nominotypical C. p. punctatum in mainland south- Nettle Creek, the southernmost locality where the newly eastern Australia, and C. p. dovei of Tasmania (Schodde discovered north Queensland population of Spotted Quail- & Mason 1999; Higgins 2002). In 2008, an apparently thrush has been recorded (Figure 1). These would almost isolated population of the species was discovered in certainly be of Spotted Quail-thrush but nothing can be north Queensland in eucalypt woodland and forest west deduced of their subspecific status. When these sightings of Atherton–Herberton–Ravenshoe (see Figure 1; Nielsen 2015). In this article, I elaborate on matters relevant to this are coupled with what Nielsen (2015, p. 302) termed the population as a further contribution to understanding the “rather incredible” 2008 report of the north Queensland taxonomy of this family (e.g. Joseph 2021). birds, the likelihood arises that other populations of this often cryptic, terrestrial species (Higgins 2002) exist in the relatively under-surveyed and difficult-to-access area Spotted Quail-thrush in central and broadly indicated by ‘?’ in Figure 1. More precisely, I refer north Queensland here to an area bounded in the north and south by the Herbert and Burdekin Rivers, respectively, and in the Nielsen (2015, p. 302) reported that the north Queensland west and east by Kinrara and Girringun National Parks, population of the Spotted Quail-thrush had been found respectively. This region has extensive suitable habitat “through the ranges from Ravenshoe and west through of eucalypt woodland (e.g. Figure 2 in DEWR 2007). It is the drier country to Dimbulah and Almaden” (see visited far less regularly by birdwatchers than the north Figure 1). Nine sightings have been reported on eBird Queensland sites (see the dearth of records in eBird (https://ebird.org/; accessed 29 March 2021) in 2019, 2020 (https://ebird.org/hotspots; accessed 19 March 2021). and 2021 from four localities within the range stated by Certainly, it should not be assumed that the species is Nielsen (2015). The population’s known range is therefore not there. Should more populations be found, they may ~166,600 ha in extent bounded by Almaden in the west, indicate genetic connectivity, even if sporadic, among Dimbulah in the north, Watsonville–Irvinebank in the east, and Nettle Creek and ranges west of Ravenshoe in the south populations of C. punctatum between the Blackdown (Figure 1). Not all of this area will be suitable for quail- Tableland–Carnarvon National Park area (Figure 1) and thrushes. This area is ~750–800 km north of the nearest north Queensland. Consistent with this possibility is Ford’s confirmed, known populations of the species at and (1983) observation that the species avoids wet coastal near Blackdown Tableland National Park and Carnarvon rainforest and is more a bird of inland habitats in the National Park in central Queensland [Figure 1; see e.g. northern parts of its range. 60 Australian Field Ornithology L. Joseph Figure 1. Map of eastern Australia showing (1) specimen records of Spotted Quail-thrush Cinclosoma punctatum derived from the Atlas of Living Australia (www.ala.org) and modified based on Ford (1983) to exclude misidentified old specimens, (2) the approximate distributions of the three subspecies recognised by Schodde & Mason (1999), and (3) the location of the recently discovered population from north Queensland west of the towns of Herberton, Ravenshoe and Atherton. Detail in the inset shows the limits of the population’s recorded range derived from Nielsen (2015) and sightings in eBird (https://ebird.org/). Localities mentioned in the text are also shown. Note that close examination of records in Ford (1983) and the Atlas of Living Australia from the region shown here as the Blackdown Tableland suggests the possibility of a number of isolated or partially isolated populations in that region. Question marks indicate gaps in recorded range for which further survey work is warranted to look for other populations. Variation in any such populations would help clarify understanding of the north Queensland population. Abbreviations: NSW – New South Wales, NT – Northern Territory, QLD – Queensland, SA – South Australia, TAS – Tasmania, VIC – Victoria. Taxonomy of the Spotted Quail-thrush await scientific verification and detail if only because fabrications of data related to those precise attributes have in north Queensland been argued recently in Australian ornithology (see details in Olsen 2018; Menkhorst et al. 2020; Olsen & Menkhorst The next issue I address is whether the north Queensland 2020). Notably, photographs of north Queensland Spotted population can yet be differentiated as a distinct subspecies. Quail-thrushes are online [e.g. photographs taken by In two non-peer-reviewed sources, the population has Enoch Bultreys of live male and female birds (at least been noted as different in having an “overall rufous one of each) can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/ appearance” (Nielsen 2015, p. 302) and in vocalisations, S60990696; https://ebird.org/checklist/S58191497; https:// nest and male plumage (Roberts 2021). The purported ebird.org/checklist/S58187638; all accessed 29 March differences, especially those cited in the latter source, 2021]. Citing conservation concerns about the newly Spotted Quail-thrush in north Queensland 61 discovered population, Roberts (2021) reported some It is helpful to understand and parse two key issues as vehement though far from unanimous opposition in the bird- separate but related. The first issue is one of the rules of observing community to the collection of any specimens zoological nomenclature and the second is one of science to determine its taxonomic status within C. punctatum. No and scientific practice. On the nomenclatural issue, Article specimens of the population have been collected. Where 73.1.4 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature does this leave research into the question of whether the (ICZN 2000) allowed that, north Queensland population is taxonomically distinct? Designation of an illustration of a single specimen as a Schodde & Mason (1999) compared 24 specimens of holotype is to be treated as designation of the specimen C. p. punctatum from north of the Hunter River, a minor illustrated; the fact that the specimen no longer exists or cannot be traced does not of itself invalidate the designation. biogeographical barrier in eastern Australia (Figure 1; Ford 1987; Bryant & Krosch 2016) and 68 from south of it. They This means that a new scientific name for a species or considered the 24 northern birds to be slightly paler olive- subspecies can be erected without a conventional museum brown dorsally and to ‘gain’ more of a faint russet wash over specimen. Later, ICZN (2017) issued a series of strong the back as one moves towards the northern geographical recommendations concerning the practice of not having a limit around the Blackdown Tableland. Schodde & Mason traditional museum specimen as a holotype. These include (1999) further remarked that the more northern specimens (1) that one provide (e.g. from near Gympie and Blackdown Tableland; detailed reasoning why at least one preserved specimen, Figure 1) become washed more richly cinnamon-rufous whether a complete individual organism or a part of such over the flanks. They could not determine whether there