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Song-count surveys and population estimates reveal the recovery of the endangered Amami Thrush Zoothera dauma major, which is endemic to Amami-Oshima Island in south-western Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2016

TAKU MIZUTA*
Affiliation:
Amami Wildlife Conservation Center, Kagoshima, Japan. Amami Ornithologists’ Club, Kagoshima, Japan.
MIKIO TAKASHI
Affiliation:
Amami Ornithologists’ Club, Kagoshima, Japan.
HISAHIRO TORIKAI
Affiliation:
Amami Ornithologists’ Club, Kagoshima, Japan.
TAMAKI WATANABE
Affiliation:
Amami Wildlife Conservation Center, Kagoshima, Japan. Amami Ornithologists’ Club, Kagoshima, Japan.
KEITA FUKASAWA
Affiliation:
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Ibaraki, Japan.
*
*Author for correspondence; e-mail: TAKU_MIZUTA@env.go.jp
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Summary

The Amami Thrush, Zoothera dauma major, is an endemic subspecies of the Eurasian Scaly Thrush that is distributed only on Amami-Oshima Island in south-western Japan. This bird was formerly considered to be a distinct species (Z. major) and was listed on the IUCN Red List as ‘Critically Endangered’ based on the small population size estimated in the early 2000s. To re-evaluate the conservation status of this bird, we estimated the number of singing males from song-count surveys conducted by an NPO with public participation from 2007 to 2013. An estimation that applied a distance sampling method revealed the number of singing males to be 945–1,858 up to 2012. A sudden increase in song counts was recorded in 2013, and the estimate increased to 2,512 in 2013. Based on the assumption that the sex ratio does not deviate from 1:1, simply doubling the number was considered to produce the estimated population size (number of males and females that are capable of breeding). The present study also confirmed that the Amami Thrush was more abundant in older forest with less open habitat, suggesting that forest maturity is an important factor for thrush abundance. The relative density of the invasive small Indian mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus probably affected thrush abundance before the early 2010s prior to mongoose eradication efforts. Our results suggest that thrush recovery was likely associated with forest regeneration and mongoose eradication. However, it is important to continue population monitoring approaches including public participation to promote further conservation of the Amami Thrush.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © BirdLife International 2016 
Figure 0

Table 1. The number of singing Amami Thrushes recorded in two types of song-count surveys during each research year. Weather, temperature and wind velocity were recorded on the day of the LT survey each year.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Map of Amami-Oshima Island in the Ryukyu Archipelago of south-western Japan. Three transect lines in the LT survey were indicated on the map: Amami Central Forest Road (Central, white line), Yuidake Forest Road (Yuidake, black line) and Sutarumata Forest Road (Sutarumata, black line). A shaded rectangle in the north-eastern part of the island indicates the area where no Amami Thrushes have been detected.

Figure 2

Figure 2. A mapped example of the results of the song-count survey conducted in 2012. Black dots indicate the locations of singing Amami Thrushes, and white lines and dots indicate the locations of the LT and PC surveys. A shaded rectangle in the north-eastern part of the island indicates the area where no Amami Thrushes have been detected.

Figure 3

Table 2. Ranking of models in each research year for explaining the number of singing Amami Thrush recorded in a grid cell, with all possible combinations of Dn and the environmental factors. The models are arranged in order of increasing Akaike information criterion (AIC). ΔAIC is the difference in AIC from that of the best model, and models with ΔAIC < 2 are shown.

Figure 4

Table 3. Parameter estimates and SE of the best model in each research year for explaining the number of singing Amami Thrushes recorded in a grid cell, with all possible combinations of Dn and the environmental factors.

Figure 5

Figure 3. Annual change in the relative density and distribution of small Indian mongoose on Amami-Oshima Island, calculated using the generalised additive model based on the CPUE data from the mongoose eradication project. The size of each grid cell is 600 m x 600 m.

Figure 6

Figure 4. Estimated number of singing male Amami Thrushes based on the results of the song-count surveys conducted from 2007 to 2013. The 95% CI is shown by the dotted lines.

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