M. Indrawan and P. Verbelen's answers

Mochamad Indrawan's answers

Forests where lives the Banggai Crow on Peleng Island Photo:Philippe Verbelen

Mochamad Indrawan: My role is as a leader of group of persistent researchers whom establish the rediscovery in the field (Peleng Island is one of the largest islands in Banggai archipelago, Sulawesi). Back in 1991, I sent my colleagues Mr. Yunus Masala and Leffrendy Pesik to the mountain range in Peleng (I was staying behind on my own, making observations behind ornithological blinds, studying the near-threatened Sula Megapode in Labobo island, which is even remoter than Peleng Island). Yunus and Leffrendy managed to see a small crow in the mist of the mountains we believed to be the species, but we can not be entirely sure because we did not have the bird in the hand In 2004, I led another expedition to the approximate range where the bird was found, and personally established that the bird survived in fairly healthy colony (I am intrigued that many people asked me if I have seen the bird myself, but I am a field ornithologist myself, and I have seen many of them in the field, even sleep close to their roosting trees:)
In collaboration with Celebes Bird Club, two specimens were secured, which were later studied by Pam, me, and others, especially for taxonomy Between 2004 and present, we conducted conservation measures for the crow (and other endemic fauna) Special, because since its description more than a hundred years ago, the Banggai Crow was never seen in the wild, and in the years prior to our studies feared to be extinct
The moral of the story is that not to give up on 'lost' species, to always combine research with conservation measures, and to always involve local communities where endangered species and human population share mosaics of forest and agriculture The good news are that we have trained local community folks, and some birdwatchers have benefitted of the improved skills of the local people The likely causes of Banggai Crow's very limited range are dependence on forest habitats, haphazerd hunting pressure, and possible competition by Corvus enca I am friends with people who have hunted crows as part of bushmeat, but it is not done systematically

Some clarifications about Philippe Verbelen's stay on Peleng

Banggai Crow (Corvus unicolor), Peleng Island, 2009 Photo:Philippe Verbelen

Philippe Verbelen: I went to Peleng in April 2009 together with another birdwatcher, mr Frank Rheindt. This was an independent exploratory birdwatching during our holidays. In my case, I took a one year sabathical leave from my job to explore some remote areas (islands mainly) of Indonesia.
At the time of my visit, Frank and I had already heard about the rumours that the Banggai Crow had been rediscovered by mr Indrawan and his team but we did not have precies information how and where to look exactly for it - so we tried our own luck and decided to visit Peleng anyway. Once we were there, things went smoother then expected because, per coincidence, we met some local people who happened to be the collaborators of mr. Indrawan and his colleagues at the Celebes Bird Club which greatly facilitated our visit to the hill forest of West Peleng. Not only were these people knowledgeable about the areas where we could find the Banggai Crow but they also had a fairly good general knowledge of the other birds that occur in these forests. Two Banggai Crows were collected in 2007, and one bird was photographed in 2009

Did you see one during your stay, and what is the last estimation of this population?

Philippe Verbelen: I photographed at least 6 different individuals of the Banggai Crow and I made numerous sound recordings of their call. My visit to the hill forest of Peleng (about 10 days) was too short and too limited in space to formulate an informed idea about population size.

Why is this crow so rare? Does it need a specific habitat? Is this habitat threatened?

Philippe Verbelen: I assume that Mr. Indrawan and his team are much better placed then myself to answer that question -- considering the fact that their fieldwork on Peleng islands is long-term and covered many different areas. Once we reached suitable habitat (hill forest in a mosaic with slash and burn agriculture and, higher up, primary looking forest -- we had the impression that the crow was probably not that rare -- we usually observed several pairs or small groups of Banggai Crow every day -- depending of course on how much distance we covered (we did not use transects or other systematic systems to assess populations). Of course a key question to answer is how much suitable habitat remains on Peleng -- therefore fieldwork covering the entire island and perhaps analysis of detailed and up-to-date satellite images is needed. Perhaps mr. Indrawan and his team are already involved in doing this, but I am not aware of this.

Wooded hills where lives the Banggai Crow on Peleng Island Photo:Philippe Verbelen

The Banggai crow clearly seems to be forest depending so deforestation and forest degradation surely have a negative impact. Deforestation seems to continue on Peleng island. I have no idea how much hunting is a real theat for the Banggai Crow's survival today. It probably is hard to say how rare this crow (currently ranked as "critically endangered" really is. Previous assumptions that it was (is ?) critically endangered or sometimes even assumed "extinct" were based on extremely limited information. How can one assume that a species is extinct when nobody had been looking in all the possible suitable habitat??
The fact that some ornithologist had previously visited Peleng and had not seen the Banggai Crow was taken as a good indication that it had to be rare etc. However, it is very unlikely that these previous visits ventured far into the hills to reach the right altitude and hill forest where the Banggai Crow currently occurs. Another confusing factor is the fact that a second Crow species, the Slender-billed Crow also occurs on the island. This has raised speculations that perhaps the Banggai Crow (previously only known from two specimen collected more then a hundred years ago) was merely a subspecies of the Slender-billed Crow which is widely distributed in a big part of the region. It is now however clear that the Banggai Crow is fairly easy to identify in the field based on a completely different jizz, a light iris (the info on your website is wrong about this) and -- most importantly -- a completely different call.
The general assumption is that Slender-billed Crow is a "recent" colonist of Peleng island. If this is correct, this may be an additional threat for the Banggai Crow because of competition for habitat etc. However we also heard many stories that from village elders on Peleng that suggest that the Slender-billed Crow was already present in their childhood etc -- so it cannot be excluded that the Slender-billed Crow has always lived side by side with the Banggai Crow (as is the case on Sulawesi where Piping Crow and Slender-billed Crow also occur in roughly the same areas but have different ecological niches. It is likely however that the Slender-billed Crow has become a lot more common on Peleng as a result of deforestation and the expansion of open agricultural areas in the lowlands of Peleng.
We observed Slender-billed Crows commonly in the open disturbed lowlands and only observed the Banggai Crows at higher altitudes and in much better forest. Whether or not the Banggai Crow perviously occurred lower down when the primary forests extended into the lowlands is a question that mr. Indrawn is better placed to answer. It requires more fieldwork and interviews with village elders on Peleng who perhaps know the Banggai Crow from their childhood

Is it common that local populations hunt and eat crows??

Philippe Verbelen: My visit was too brief to be able to answer this question properly. Mr. Indrawan and his team have assessed hunting activity as a threat for the Banggai Crow and that certainly seems plausible. In general, many of the villagers go hunting for birds and animals in the forest so I see no reason why they would not hunt a Banggai Crow if they have the chance. During our visit it is perhaps unlikely that local people would tell us whether or not they are hunting and eating the Banggai Crows because the people in the villages where we stayed knew well that we were birdwatchers and that we were interested in observing the Banggai Crows. Some people did tell us that they previously hunted the Banggai Crow but that they have stopped doing so because they now understand how special (and unique to their island) the Banggai Crow really is. This is certainly possible and can be a result of the conservation and education work mr. Indrawan and his team have initiated since a couple of years now.
Additional activities to raise awareness in the local communities on the importance to protect the Banggai Crow is necessarry and could have a positive impact. Local communities need to see that they can somehow benefit from protecting the Banggai Crow -- perhaps through small scale ecotourism where the local communities benefit from some additional income and employment opportunities and projects that help them to develop agricultural practices that are less destructive for the forest environment. I understood from mr. Indrawan and his team that such activities have already started and in the process of being developed further.
We wish them good luck and hope for the wellbeing of the Banggai Crow till far into the future!.

Source

MSU News (2009). Long feared extinct, rare bird rediscovered with MSU scientist’s help. Michigan State University. Date de mise à jour: 13/10/09. http://news.msu.edu/story/6958/#


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