COS 233-5 - Leveraging local knowledge to document the Black-naped Pheasant-pigeon (Otidiphaps insularis), a species lost to science since the 1800s

Abstract: Biodiversity remains incompletely assessed in the tropics, where species are vanishing before they have been described. Even among known tropical species, many have been undocumented for many decades, raising concerns that these species have been lost, and inspiring the “Search for Lost Species”, a partnership between Re:wild, the American Bird Conservancy, and BirdLife International. One of these lost species”, the Black-naped Pheasant-pigeon (Otidiphaps insularis) had been previously undocumented since initial specimens were collected in the late 1800s on Fergusson Island, a member of the D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago in eastern Papua New Guinea. This pigeon belongs to an enigmatic and poorly understood clade of ground-dwelling pigeons endemic to New Guinea. We initially searched for the Black-naped Pheasant-pigeon by interviewing hunters across Fergusson Is. to evaluate their general knowledge of the local avifauna, assess their familiarity with the Black-naped Pheasant-pigeon, and collect local knowledge of the bird’s natural history. Most hunters were unfamiliar with the Pheasant-pigeon but had extensive knowledge about other birds on the island. However, we found several people in one village who were not only quite knowledgeable of the local avifauna but also accurately identified the Pheasant-pigeon from an illustration. These hunters guided us to locations where we placed camera traps that eventually provided the first documentation of the species since the last specimen was collected in 1896. The media we will present here provide evidence that the Pheasant-pigeon occurs at multiple sites on the island. Ominously, we learned that a logging concession had recently been sold for one of two forest tracts now known to support the Pheasant-pigeon, emphasizing that efforts must be expanded in the search for “lost species”. Search efforts must be tied to conserving the habitats of these threatened species, especially through fostering and sustaining local indigenous peoples’ value of these irreplaceable natural resources.