Galapagos crake

Galapagos crake
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Laterallus
Species: L. spilonota
Binomial name
Laterallus spilonota
(Gould, 1841)

The Galapagos crake or Galapagos rail (Laterallus spilonota) is a small rail endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It resembles the closely related black rail of The Americas. It is threatened by introduced species, such as goats and cats, and is considered vulnerable.

Description

The Galapagos crake is a small (15 cm) nearly flightless ground living bird. It has dark plumage, black overall with a greyer head and breast, and white spots on the back. It has a scarlet eye, a black bill, and short, nearly useless wings. They are very vocal with a wide range of calls.

Habits

The Galapagos crake lives in moist grasslands and forest, skulking in deep cover. In the Galapagos these habitats are generally found on islands with higher elevations (particularly on the islands of Santiago, Santa Cruz and Sierra Negra), and the rails are commonest higher up. They feed in invertebrates, mostly snails, isopods, dragonflies, bugs, ants, also taking berries and some seeds. They feed during the day, moving along the ground tossing leaves and investigating the leaf litter.

Galapagos crakes and humans

The Galapagos crake, despite being a nearly flightless island living rail, has managed to survive the arrival of humans in the Galapagos. It is a confiding species that is curious of humans and will approach and investigate them, this naivety makes it vulnerable to feral cats, dogs and pigs. Introduced goats and cattle also cause habitat loss that causes a drop in their numbers. The removal of goats and cattle, and the resulting regeneration of trees, shrubs and grasses, leads quickly to a return of the rail. As most of the Galapagos crake's habitat lies in a national park, and efforts are underway to remove the introduced species doing the most harm, the future is looking better for these birds.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, December 16, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.