- Chinese Merganser
Taxobox
name = Chinese Merganser
status = EN
trend = down
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Chordata
classis =Aves
ordo =Anseriformes
familia =Anatidae
genus = "Mergus "
species = "M. squamatus"
binomial = "Mergus squamatus"
binomial_authority = Gould,1864 The Chinese Merganser, or Scaly-sided Merganser, "Mergus squamatus", is a typical merganser.
This is a striking duck with a shaggy crest and scaled flanks. The adult male has a black head and neck with a long crest, white breast and underparts, and blackish mantle with white innerwings. The female has a buffish head and a wispy crest.
Their breeding habitat is rivers in primary forest in south-east
Russia ,North Korea and north-eastChina . They are migratory, wintering in central and southern China, with small numbers inJapan ,South Korea ,Taiwan , northernVietnam ,Myanmar andThailand .This species is endangered. Numbers reduced in the 1960s and 1970s due to alterations to primary forests along major rivers. Current threats included illegal hunting, entanglement in fishing nets and river
pollution . According to theIUCN classification EN C1, less than 2500 adult birds remain, and numbers are expected to decline by no less than 20% until around 2010 (BirdLife International 2006).A confounding factor is that this species is rather solitary. Pairs generally avoid each other, and even on the wintering grounds, groups of more than a dozen are very rare. Thus, even though it is known to occur over a wide area, an accurate estimate of its population is difficult. A somewhat cruede but nonetheless important indication of the Scaly-sided Merganser's population status may be gleaned by annual censuses on the lower
Yangtze River , which constitutes the single most important wintering area known to date (Fen-Qi "et al." 2002).References
*|year=2006|id=13153|title=Mergus squamatus|downloaded=6 May 2006 Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is endangered.
* (2002): Status of the Scaly-sided Merganser Wintering in Mainland China in the 1990s. "Waterbirds" 25(4): 462-464. DOI:10.1675/1524-4695(2002)025 [0462:SOTSMW] 2.0.CO;2 [http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1675%2F1524-4695%282002%29025%5B0462%3ASOTSMW%5D2.0.CO%3B2 HTML abstract]External links
* ARKive - [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/birds/Mergus_squamatus/ images and movies of the scaly-sided merganser "(Mergus squamatus)"]
* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=501&m=0 BIrdLife species factsheet] . Retrieved 2007-JUN-12.
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