Salvadori's Teal

Taxobox
name = Salvadori's Teal
status = VU | status_system = IUCN3.1
trend = down
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Anseriformes
familia = Anatidae
subfamilia = Tadorninae
genus = "Salvadorina"
genus_authority = Rothschild & Hartert, 1894
species = "S. waigiuensis"
binomial = "Salvadorina waigiuensis"
binomial_authority = Rothschild & Hartert, 1894

The Salvadori's Teal or Salvadori's Duck ("Salvadorina waigiuensis") is a species of bird native to New Guinea. It is placed in the monotypic genus "Salvadorina".

Initially, it was believed to belong to the "perching ducks", a paraphyletic assemblage of species which generally fell between dabbling ducks and shelducks. With the breaking-up of the "perching ducks", it was rather provisionally placed in the dabbling duck genus "Anas"Fact|date=February 2007. It was then reinstated in its own genus and moved to the shelduck subfamily TadorninaeFact|date=February 2007, which also contains the Torrent Duck and Blue Duck which convergently have evolved adaptations to mountain stream habitat. All or some of these species may actually be surviving lineages of an ancient Gondwanan radiation of waterfowl (Sraml "et al." 1996).

It is a secretive inhabitant of fast-flowing streams and alpine lakes between 500 and 3.700m in the mountains. It is one of only four waterfowl species that are adapted to life on fast-flowing rivers, the other being the Torrent, the Blue and Harlequin Duck. The Salvadori's Teal is the sole endemic duck species of the island of New Guinea. The IUCN has listed the bird as vulnerable, and the total population may be slowly declining.

The name commemorates the Italian naturalist Tommaso Salvadori.

References

* Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is vulnerable

* Beehler, Bruce M., Pratt, Thane K. & Zimmerman, Dale A. (1986): "Birds of New Guinea". Princeton University Press, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-02394-8

* Diamond, Jared M. (1972): AviBirds of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. "Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club" 12: 1-438.

* Kear, J. (1975): Salvadori's Duck of New Guinea. "Wildfowl" 26: 104-111.

* Sraml, M.; Christidis, L.; Easteal, S.; Horn, P. & Collet, C. (1996): Molecular Relationships Within Australasian Waterfowl (Anseriformes). "Australian Journal of Zoology" 44(1): 47-58. DOI|10.1071/ZO9960047 (HTML abstract)

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=423&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet] . Retrieved 2006-DEC-02.