Découverte d’un nouveau lophophore en Inde

Much larger than a village hen, Mountain Peacocks, properly known as Monals are essentially birds of the high temperate forests and alpine pastures of the Himalayas and adjoining ranges in Myanmar and China. Unlike their distant cousin, the peafowl, monal pheasants are little known and uncommon, except to the hill people who live close to its range. In India, two of the three known species of monal occur: the Himalayan Monal Lophophorus impejanus and Sclater’s Monal Lophophorus sclateri. The Himalayan Monal is a wide-ranging species found from eastern Afghanistan to Monal is a restricted range species known only from the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh in India, adjoining Myanmar and in China. The Chinese monal Lophophorus lhyusii is also a restricted range species and found only in some parts of China.
In 1998, during a survey for pheasants leaded by Suresh Kumar from the Wildlife Institute of India, specifically for Sclater’s monal in the remote mountains of the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh along the Indo-China border evidences for the presence of a new mountain peacock, called White-tailed Monal, were first obtained. This form seems to be a subspecies of the Sclater’s Monal.