Open Access
How to translate text using browser tools
1 January 2020 Habitat Association and Conservation Status of the Endangered Giant Nuthatch (Sitta magna) in Thailand
Supatchaya Techachoochert, George A. Gale, Jenjit Khudamrongsawat, Philip D. Round
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

The Giant Nuthatch Sitta magna is restricted to southwestern China, eastern Myanmar, and northern Thailand. Although globally endangered, most aspects of its ecology remain as yet unquantified. To assess its habitat associations and population size, we conducted point counts with playback at 42 sample points across 12 discrete historical and potential localities within its Thai range during October to November 2015. Eleven habitat variables were measured, including three site-level vegetation variables and eight landscape variables were assessed, using geographic information system land cover maps. N-mixture models were applied to estimate density and extrapolate the size of the population. The Giant Nuthatch was found at four localities (12 of the 42 sample points) at elevations between 1,192 m and 1,738 m. It was not detected at four historical Giant Nuthatch localities in protected areas. Abundance increased with increasing elevation, increasing proportion of evergreen forest, and greater distance from villages. We estimated that the Thai population of Giant Nuthatch was approximately 964 individuals based on an average density of 1.96 individuals/km2 in approximately 491.8 km2 of appropriate forest habitat at 1,192 m to 1,951 m elevation. This may be an overestimate because available forest cover maps and images do not distinguish between the characteristic, patchily distributed, lower montane open pine–oak forest association used by Giant Nuthatch and denser, closed-canopy forest. Although Thailand’s Giant Nuthatch population may be better protected than those in adjoining countries, we suggest that it remains threatened by forest fragmentation and habitat degradation throughout its range. Further comprehensive research is needed to assess the status of the remaining global population and the reasons for its scarcity.

© The Author(s) 2018 Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Supatchaya Techachoochert, George A. Gale, Jenjit Khudamrongsawat, and Philip D. Round "Habitat Association and Conservation Status of the Endangered Giant Nuthatch (Sitta magna) in Thailand," Tropical Conservation Science 11(1), (1 January 2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/1940082918798332
Published: 1 January 2020
KEYWORDS
distribution
habitat degradation
N-mixture models
population estimate
Sitta magna
Back to Top