Hanuman plover bird gets reinstated as species after 86 years
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New Delhi: In a bid to give more importance to its conservation, the Hanuman plover bird has been reinstated as species after 86 years of being downgraded to a subspecies, PTI reported.
Hanuman plover was merged with the Kentish plover in the 1930s, believing that both species are the same. But, the advent of DNA sequencing has allowed scientists to confirm subtle differences between the groups that are enough to split them apart.
Researchers are positive that by bringing the bird back to a species, conservation funding could be used to protect its habitat, the threatened wetlands.
These habitats are highly biodiverse and provide important overwintering sites for migrating birds, they said.
"While we don't know if the Hanuman plover is threatened at the moment, it lives in an area which has one of the highest human population densities on the planet," said Alex Bond, who co-authored the study and is a principal curator at the Natural History Museum in the UK.
"Having a name attached to these birds means it is easier for policymakers and politicians to notice these plovers and take any steps needed to help them," Mr Bond said in a statement.
The bird family of plovers are all around the world except for the Poles. Their prime food is invertebrates, and they have a range of different habitats and lifestyles. Hanuman plover's scientific name is Charadrius seebohmi.
Researchers learned that these birds tended to have smaller wings, tails and beaks than the Kentish plover, along with different plumage. Kentish plover has black legs in both sexes, but Hanuman has dark grey legs. The latter's males have a black stripe across their forehead.
Hanuman plover moult much earlier in the year and moult different feathers before the breeding season., compared to Kentish. Genetical studies of the bird found that both birds split apart around 1.2 million years ago.
A species consists of a population that cannot interbreed successfully with another species. A subspecies consists of a group within a species that is usually geographically isolated from other subspecies.