Just a few ragtag notes, hoping they can be of interest someone (and to avoid that I forget them myself).
Nomenclature:
These two are always recognized as forming the base of two subspecies:
- Vultur barbatus Linnaeus, 1758. Based on Gesner's Vultur aureus and Edwards' "Bearded Vulture"; although Linnaeus stated "Habitat in Africa", the actual original type locality should encompass Helvetia = Switzerland (Gesner's bird) and "Santa Cruz on the Coast of Barbary" (Edwards' bird). The type locality was restricted to "Santa Cruz on the Coast of Barbary" only, by Hartert 1914, who argued that Linnaeus used only Edwards as a source for his name, diagnosis and habitat statements. (Might probably be interpreted as a loose lectotype designation--he cited both sources and explicitly chose to regard the name as based on a single specimen.) Hartert interpreted this locality as Fort Santa Cruz, near Oran, Algeria, and this was repeated by many subsequent authors. But this I believe to be wrong: Santa Cruz de Berberia = Agadir, Morocco, which is a much more logical place for a ship to come from than Fort Santa Cruz, near Oran; see also the footnote here, about another species but involving the same Captain John Dobson as in the case of the vulture: "Santa Cruz (on the Western Coast of Barbary, bordering the Atlantick Ocean)".
- Gypaetos meridionalis Keyserling & Blasius, 1840. Based on two specimens from South Africa. Note OS actually "meidionalis", not (yet) subjected to the recent "correction" trend. (Please, don't. It really is incorrect.
)
In addition to these, western ornithologists have also traditionally recognized a subspecies based on:
- Vultur aureus Hablizl, 1783. Description based on a bird observed "auf dem hiesigen Alpen" (on the local alps) in "der persischen Landschaft Gilan" (the Persian province of Gilan). Name attributed to Brisson by Hablizl, but Brisson's species names are unavailable, and Hablizl's use of it is the first valid one.
And, last, H&M4 now also recognize a fourth race, citing, "for recognition", Stepanyan 2003 (which I haven't seen; Stepanyan 1990--first ed. of the same work--also recognized it, albeit he was a bit laconic as to why he did, just stating: "
Более крупная раса. Длина крыла самцов 790-870 (855), длина крыла самок 820-910 (880)."):
- Gypaetos Hemachalanus Hutton, 1838. Based on 8 birds shot at/near Simla (7; Himachal Pradesh; "Hemachalanus"="from Himachal"?) and Neemuch (1; Madhya Pradesh?--status of this last bird not very clear in the text; surprising record, also, as this is very far south), India... which makes the H&M4 treatment probably untenable, as they identify the birds of W and C Himalayas, as far east as Nepal, as aureus; Simla and Neemuch are both clearly to the west of this limit, thus the types of hemachalanus would not appear to be part of the large NE populations the name is used for. As a matter of fact, Cramp & Simmons 1980 already noted that this name could not be used for these populations, because topotypical birds were in no way particularly large. This name was introduced based on claimed differences in wingtip structure and head pattern.
Stepanyan 1990 also cited as a synonym of his G. b. hemachalanus:
- Gypaetus altaicus Sharpe, 1874. Introduced in synonymy and without any description, but citing Gebler 1840, and was adopted as valid by subsequent authors, making it available from Sharpe under Art.11.6.1 of the ICZN. Gebler's description was based primarily on a specimen he found frozen in winter, after it had eaten poisoned flesh aimed at killing wolves, in the Katun mountains, Altai, Russia. He described differences in colour (paler plumage; also whiter iris, redder orbital, bluer eyelid) and a larger size, but regarded these as insufficient to make the bird a different species, and so did not name it himself. Sharpe's name seems vastly better than Hutton's to me.
For morphology, see:
Delibes M, Hiraldo F, Calderón F. 1984. Age and geographic variation in the Bearded Vulture
Gypaetus barbatus (Linnaeus, 1758).
Bonn. Zool. Beitr. 35: 71-90. - [
pdf]
Hiraldo F, Delibes M, Calderón J. 1984. Comments on the taxonomy of the Bearded Vulture
Gypaetus barbatus (Linnaeus, 1758).
Bonn. Zool. Beitr. 35: 91-95. - [
pdf]
(the latter cited by Mundy, cited by Richard above.)
For molecular phylogeography, see:
Godoy JA, Negro JJ, Hiraldo F & Donazar JA. 2004. Phylogeography, genetic structure and diversity in the endangered bearded vulture (
Gypaetus barbatus, L.) as revealed by mitochondrial DNA.
Molecular Ecology 13: 371-390. - [
pdf]
(cited by Niels above.)
Note that restricting
barbatus to N African populations and recognizing
aureus for Eurasian birds is in no way an innovation--it's just the retention of an old "classical" treatment, which dates back at least to
Peters 1931.
----
Nutcracker, have you seen
this post on Mohamed's blog? (Note also the "update" at the end.)
