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Modelling habitat suitability for the Critically Endangered Manumea or Tooth-billed Pigeon Didunculus strigirostris using past and present baselines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2024

William B. Gough ,
Michael A. Hudson ,
H. Glyn Young ,
Joe Wood ,
Hester Whitehead  and
Samuel T. Turvey Open the ORCID record for Samuel T. Turvey [Opens in a new window]
William B. Gough
Affiliation:
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, UK
Michael A. Hudson
Affiliation:
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
H. Glyn Young
Affiliation:
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands
Joe Wood
Affiliation:
Toledo Zoo, Toledo, Ohio, USA IUCN Species Survival Commission Pigeon and Dove Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland
Hester Whitehead
Affiliation:
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands
Samuel T. Turvey*
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
*
Corresponding author: Samuel T. Turvey; Email: [email protected]
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Summary

Evidence-based conservation can be hindered by limited field data, but historical archives have the potential to provide unique insights into conservation-relevant parameters, such as identification of suitable habitat for threatened species. The Manumea or Tooth-billed Pigeon Didunculus strigirostris has declined on Samoa and only a tiny remnant population still persists, and a key first step for conservation is to locate surviving birds. Numerous Manumea records are available from the nineteenth century onwards, and we used historical and modern records to generate a series of species distribution models to predict the distribution of suitable habitat across Samoa to guide new field searches. Manumea distribution is closely associated with forest cover or its proxies. Preferred Manumea food plants are suggested to be low-elevation trees, but elevation provides relatively low percentage contribution in most models, thus not excluding the possibility that Manumea might occur at high elevations. There is also little evidence for elevational change in records over the past century. Models based on visual versus acoustic records exhibit differences in predicted habitat suitability, suggesting that some purported acoustic records might not actually represent Manumea calls. Field searches should target areas representing high habitat suitability across all models, notably the forested central axis of Upolu.

Keywords

Environmental archivesHistorical baselinesIsland extinctionsMaxEntMuseum recordsSpecies distribution models
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 34 , 2024 , e20
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

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