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Status of white-necked picathartes – another reason for the conservation of the Peninsula Forest, Sierra Leone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

Hazell S. S. Thompson
Hazell S. S. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Mount Aureol, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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Abstract

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A survey of the Western Area Peninsula Forest in Sierra Leone in 1990 located eight breeding sites of the white-necked picathartes–a striking endemic West African forest bird threatened with extinction. Several breeding sites were in areas of fairly intense human activity and in danger of imminent destruction. Subsequent observations revealed successful breeding in 1990 and unsuccessful attempts in 1991. This population is probably only just viable. The discovery of Jentink's duiker–Africa's rarest duiker–in the same forest in 1988 and the presence of three threatened primate species prompted calls for urgent conservation action. The precarious status of the white-necked picathartes population provides another compelling reason for such action.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , July 1993 , pp. 155 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1993

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