Himalayan Snowcock
Encyclopedia
The Himalayan Snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis) is a snowcock
in the pheasant family Phasianidae
found across the Himalayan ranges and parts of the adjoining Pamir range of Asia. It is found on alpine pastures and on steep rocky cliffs where they will dive down the hill slopes to escape. It overlaps with the slightly smaller Tibetan Snowcock
in parts of its wide range. The populations from different areas show variations in the colouration and about five subspecies have been designated. They were introduced in the mountains of Nevada
in the United States
in the 1960s and a wild population has established in the Ruby Mountains
.
noted that it matched a bird illustrated (plate 76) in Jardine and Selby
's "Illustrations of Ornithology" which he noted should be called as Tetraogallus caucasicus and another illustration plate 141 which was said to be the male of the one in plate 76 was separated based on the geography and given the name of Tetraogallus himalayensis.
A molecular phylogenetics study suggests that the Tibetan Snowcock represents an early or older divergence from the common ancestor of the snowcocks. The widespread distribution is made up of many populations that show variations in plumage. Several subspecies have been described, but not all are always recognized. A subspecies described as sauricus was the subject of considerable nomenclatural debate.
In 1961 the similarity of the Himalayan landscape to the Nevada region was noted and the Himalayan Snowcock was considered as a good game bird for introduction by the Nevada Fish and Game Commission. The Commission then approached the President of Pakistan for some birds. These were wild trapped in Hunza and early shipments faced heavy losses after which birds were locally reared at Mason Valley game farm and over a 15-year period (1965–1979) more than 2000 birds were released into the wild. A wild population more than 200 to 500 birds has established itself in the Ruby Mountains, where they forage above the treeline.
When feeding they walk slowly up hill, picking up the tender blades of grass and young shoots of plants on the way. They have been noted feeding on the berries of Ephedra
, leaves of Artemisia
, grass shoots, bulbs and the heads of a rye-like grass. In the Hunza range, they have been observed to prefer Sibbaldia cuneata. Once they reach the top of a ridge of the hill, they fly off to adjacent hill, alighting some distance down, and again picking their way upwards. When walking, they cock their tails showing the white under tail coverts. They are generally wary and when disturbed run uphill and then launch themselves from the crests in flight, getting up considerable speed. They are more prone to predation on the alpine pastures than on steep slopes and flocking helps them to keep more eyes out for predators allowing them to forage more efficiently. In the Hunza range, flock sizes tended to be larger in rocky habitats, where they risked being attacked by Golden Eagles, than on grassy meadows.
The breeding season is summer, April to June. During courtship, the male crouches low down to the ground with wings slightly spread, tail depressed and feathers slightly ruffled. Then, he runs backwards and forwards in front of the hen or in circles. The nest is a bare ground scrape sheltered under a stone or bush, preferably close to the crest of a ridge on the leeward side. About 5 to 12 long oval eggs are laid which are a stony olive or brown colour and spotted throughout with red or brown. The eggs are incubated only by the female. The male is monogynous, staying in the vicinity of the nest often seen perched on some elevated rock and keeping a watch against intruders. When disturbed, the cock warns the female with a loud whistle. If caught unaware in the nest, the hen bird will not leave the nest until approached very close. The eggs hatched in an incubator after about 27–28 days.
Adults are sometimes preyed on by Golden Eagle
s. Several species of endoparasitic Acanthocephala
and Nematoda such as Hispaniolepis fedtschenkoi, have been described from the species.
Snowcock
The snowcocks are a group of bird species in the genus Tetraogallus of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are ground-nesting birds which breed in the mountain ranges of southern Eurasia from the Caucasus to the Himalayas and western China. The Himalayan Snowcock has been introduced...
in the pheasant family Phasianidae
Phasianidae
The Phasianidae is a family of birds which consists of the pheasants and partridges, including the junglefowl , Old World Quail, francolins, monals and peafowl. The family is a large one, and is occasionally broken up into two subfamilies, the Phasianinae, and the Perdicinae...
found across the Himalayan ranges and parts of the adjoining Pamir range of Asia. It is found on alpine pastures and on steep rocky cliffs where they will dive down the hill slopes to escape. It overlaps with the slightly smaller Tibetan Snowcock
Tibetan Snowcock
The Tibetan Snowcock is a bird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. This species is found in high-altitude regions of the Western Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, where it overlaps in part with the larger Himalayan Snowcock...
in parts of its wide range. The populations from different areas show variations in the colouration and about five subspecies have been designated. They were introduced in the mountains of Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the 1960s and a wild population has established in the Ruby Mountains
Ruby Mountains
The Ruby Mountains comprise one of the many mountain ranges of the Great Basin in the western United States. They are the predominant range in Elko County, in the northeastern section of the state of Nevada. To the north is Secret Pass and the East Humboldt Range, and from there the Rubies run...
.
Description
The Himalayan Snow-Cock is a large grey partridge-like bird, 55 – in length and weighing 2–3.1 kg (4.4–6.8 lb). The head pattern has a resemblance to that of the smaller and well marked Chukar Partridge. The white throat and sides of the head are bordered by chestnut moustachial stripe and a dark broad chestnut band stretching from the eye over the ear, expanding into the collar. The upper parts are grey, with feathers of the rump and the wings are bordered with rufous. The upper breast is grey with dark crescent bars. The lower breast plumage is dark grey, and the sides of the body are streaked with black, chestnut and white. The undertail coverts are white. The legs and orbital skin are yellow. Sexes are alike in plumage, but the female is smaller and lacks the large tarsal spur of the male. In flight, from above, the white primaries tipped in black and the rufous outer tail feathers make it distinctive. The Tibetan Snowcock has a wing pattern with white trailing edge to the secondaries that contrasts with the grey wings.Taxonomy and systematics
Around 1841 specimen of a bird was brought to the menagerie of the Zoological Society of London, presented by E W Bonham, consul at Tabrez. George Robert GrayGeorge Robert Gray
George Robert Gray FRS was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years...
noted that it matched a bird illustrated (plate 76) in Jardine and Selby
Prideaux John Selby
Prideaux John Selby was an English ornithologist, botanist and artist and landowner.Selby is best known for his Illustrations of British Ornithology , the first set of life-sized illustrations of British birds...
's "Illustrations of Ornithology" which he noted should be called as Tetraogallus caucasicus and another illustration plate 141 which was said to be the male of the one in plate 76 was separated based on the geography and given the name of Tetraogallus himalayensis.
A molecular phylogenetics study suggests that the Tibetan Snowcock represents an early or older divergence from the common ancestor of the snowcocks. The widespread distribution is made up of many populations that show variations in plumage. Several subspecies have been described, but not all are always recognized. A subspecies described as sauricus was the subject of considerable nomenclatural debate.
- The nominate subspecies was described by G. R. Gray in 1843 and refers to the populations from eastern Afghanistan extending to Ladakh and the central Himalayas of Nepal.
- incognitus described by ZarudnyNikolai ZarudnyNikolai Alekseyvich Zarudny was a Ukrainian-Russian explorer and zoologist of Ukrainian origin, who studied the fauna, especially the birds of Central Asia. He was born in Gryakovo, Ukraine . He wrote his first ornithology book in 1896 and made five expeditions in the Caspian region from 1884 and...
in 1911 from the mountains of southern Tadjikistan and northern Afghanistan, is overall much paler with very light chestnut and black markings on underside and buffier.(bendi described by Walter Norman KoelzWalter Norman KoelzWalter Norman Koelz was an American zoologist and museum collector.Walter Koelz's parents were immigrants from the Black Forest region of Germany, and his father was a village blacksmith in Waterloo. Walter Koelz studied zoology and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University...
is usually included in this) - sewerzowi Zarudny, 1910 - Tien Shan to Zaysan (Kazakhstan) east to Xinjiang (not recognized by Ernst HartertErnst HartertErnst Johann Otto Hartert was a German ornithologist. Hartert was born in Hamburg. He was employed by Lionel Walter Rothschild as ornithological curator of his private museum at Tring from 1892 to 1929....
) - grombczewskii Bianchi, 1898 - Kunlun Mountains
- koslowi Bianchi, 1898 - Nan Shan and Ching Hai Ku Mountains of Qinghai and S Gansu
Distribution and status
Himalayan Snowcock frequents alpine pastures and steep ridges of mountains of Central and South Asia above the treeline and near the snowline. In the Himalayas, it is found between 4000 to 5000 m elevation in summer, descending to 2400 m during severe winters. Since the Himalayan Snowcock has a large distribution range and no visible declines in population, it has been considered a species of "least concern" by the IUCN.In 1961 the similarity of the Himalayan landscape to the Nevada region was noted and the Himalayan Snowcock was considered as a good game bird for introduction by the Nevada Fish and Game Commission. The Commission then approached the President of Pakistan for some birds. These were wild trapped in Hunza and early shipments faced heavy losses after which birds were locally reared at Mason Valley game farm and over a 15-year period (1965–1979) more than 2000 birds were released into the wild. A wild population more than 200 to 500 birds has established itself in the Ruby Mountains, where they forage above the treeline.
Behaviour and ecology
Himalayan Snowcocks are gregarious when not breeding, moving around in small groups. Several groups may inhabit the same hill. They keep entirely to open country and seems to prefer rocky hill-sides. They feed on grass, shoots, berries and seeds. In the mornings the birds fly downhill to drink water. When approached from below their level, they attempt to climb up the slopes on foot and when approached from above the dive down the valleys on open wings. In India, the breeding season is in summer, April to June. It is silent in winter but in spring, its call is a familiar part of the landscape. The song is a loud whistle with three parts with the tone ascending. They also make a rising, shrill piping call.When feeding they walk slowly up hill, picking up the tender blades of grass and young shoots of plants on the way. They have been noted feeding on the berries of Ephedra
Ephedra
Ephedra refers to the plant Ephedra sinica. E. sinica, known in Chinese as ma huang , has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years for the treatment of asthma and hay fever, as well as for the common cold...
, leaves of Artemisia
Artemisia (plant)
Artemisia is a large, diverse genus of plants with between 200 to 400 species belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae. It comprises hardy herbs and shrubs known for their volatile oils. They grow in temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, usually in dry or semi-dry...
, grass shoots, bulbs and the heads of a rye-like grass. In the Hunza range, they have been observed to prefer Sibbaldia cuneata. Once they reach the top of a ridge of the hill, they fly off to adjacent hill, alighting some distance down, and again picking their way upwards. When walking, they cock their tails showing the white under tail coverts. They are generally wary and when disturbed run uphill and then launch themselves from the crests in flight, getting up considerable speed. They are more prone to predation on the alpine pastures than on steep slopes and flocking helps them to keep more eyes out for predators allowing them to forage more efficiently. In the Hunza range, flock sizes tended to be larger in rocky habitats, where they risked being attacked by Golden Eagles, than on grassy meadows.
The breeding season is summer, April to June. During courtship, the male crouches low down to the ground with wings slightly spread, tail depressed and feathers slightly ruffled. Then, he runs backwards and forwards in front of the hen or in circles. The nest is a bare ground scrape sheltered under a stone or bush, preferably close to the crest of a ridge on the leeward side. About 5 to 12 long oval eggs are laid which are a stony olive or brown colour and spotted throughout with red or brown. The eggs are incubated only by the female. The male is monogynous, staying in the vicinity of the nest often seen perched on some elevated rock and keeping a watch against intruders. When disturbed, the cock warns the female with a loud whistle. If caught unaware in the nest, the hen bird will not leave the nest until approached very close. The eggs hatched in an incubator after about 27–28 days.
Adults are sometimes preyed on by Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle
The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
s. Several species of endoparasitic Acanthocephala
Acanthocephala
Acanthocephala is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephales, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an evertable proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to pierce and hold the gut wall of its host...
and Nematoda such as Hispaniolepis fedtschenkoi, have been described from the species.
Other sources
- Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse by Madge and McGowan, ISBN 0-7136-3966-0
- National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America ISBN 0-7922-6877-6
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Vol 2, Josep del Hoyo editor, ISBN 84-87334-10-5
- "National Audubon Society" The Sibley Guide to Birds, by David Allen Sibley, ISBN 0-679-45122-6