Redécouverte du Perdicule du Manipur après 75 ans d’asbence

The Manipur Bush-quail (Perdicula manipurensis) is a shy and very rare a species that inhabits in damp grassland, particularly tall grass, and sometimes bogs and swamps, and even the foothills. According to records, it was generally sighted in small groups of four to 12, and was shy, reluctant to fly and extremely difficult to observe, although coveys were occasionally seen feeding in the open on recently burnt ground. It is endemic to northern West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya. Its range previously extended to Bangladesh.
It was first collected and described by Allan Octavian Hume on an ornithological expedition to Manipur in 1881. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN’s Red List, as its habitat is small, fragmented, and rapidly shrinking. There were no confirmed sightings of the bird from 1932 until June 2006, when Anwaruddin Choudhury reported spotting the quail in Assam.
Mr Choudhury, an Indian wildlife enthusiast claimed to have sighted a nearly extinct bird, Manipur Bush-quail at a wildlife sanctuary in Assam. Choudhury, the district magistrate of Baska in western Assam and an avid bird watcher and wildlife expert, said he spotted the Manipur Bush-quail at the 500 square km Manas National Park earlier this month while on an official visit. The Manipur Bush-quail, one of the world’s most endangered birds listed in the Red Data Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was sighted last around 1932 by an Indian Civil Service officer and ornithologist J.C. Higgins in Manipur. « It was like a flash when the bird appeared in front of our jeep and soon vanished inside the thick undergrowth,’ Choudhury said.