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NEW SPECIES OF LAUGHINGTHRUSH DESCRIBED FROM THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF VIETNAM
Bird life Vietnam magazine
Another new species of laughingthrush has recently been described from the central highlands. This brings to three the number of new bird species recently described from the central highlands. The description of this latest discovery appears in the March issue of the British Omithologists Club.
The new species has been named as Chestnut-eared Laughingthrush Garrulax konkakinhensis and was discovered on Mount Kon Ka Kinh in Gia Lai province in 1999 during a survey to collate information for the investment plan or the nature reserve. The speeies has been named after Mount Kon Ka Kinh to draw attention to the need to conserve this internationally important site.
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The Golden-winged laughingthrush Garrulax ngoclinhensis - Ảnh Internet download |
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This new species shows strong similarity to Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush Garrulax rufogularis which occurs widely throughout the Himalayas and is also found in north-west Vietnam. The new species shows four plumage features not shown by any described race of Garrulax rufogularis. The Chestnut – eared Laughingthrush occurs among undergrowth in montane evergreen forest between c. 1,600 and 1,700 m asl. and may also occur in this habitat and at this altitude elsewhere in the Central Highlands. In their paper the authors demonstrate that the new species is allopatric with the closely related Garrulax rufogularis, and that this new species meets intemationally accepted definitions of a species.
The level of variation shown by the new species lies beyond that exhibited within Garrulax rufogularis, and since it shares plumage features with two other closely related species, species status must be its appropriate taxonomic rank. The alternative approach of assigning this new species as a subspecies of Garrulax rufogularis would have both added yet another dimension of variability to an already variable species, (which may itself require taxonomic revision), and would require ignoring the similarities in plumage the new species shows with its aforementioned congeners.
This same argument was central in providing justification for assigning species status to the recently described Golden-winged Laughingthrush Garrulax ngoclinhensis
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