Cameras set for leopards spark ‘rediscovery’ of other creature at Indonesia park
In a mountainous forest of Indonesia, an “elusive” gray-and-white creature emerged from the trees and walked along the edge of a clearing. Unbeknownst to it, a nearby trail camera documented its brief appearance.
The photos took years to identify — but turned out to be a “noteworthy rediscovery.”
Conservationists at Meru Betiri National Park began using trail cameras to monitor the area’s wildlife in 2017 and continued the project until 2023.
“The primary objective of this surveillance was to detect the presence of the Javan leopard and its prey species,” Arif Mohammad Siddiq and Nur Kholiq wrote in a study published Oct. 26 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Threatened Taxa.
While sifting through the trail camera photos, researchers realized the cameras had “inadvertently documented” another species: a white-faced partridge, the study said.
White-faced partridges, also known as gray-breasted partridges or Arborophila orientalis, are an at-risk species of bird found only in the mountains of eastern Java island, researchers said. The birds have “limited flight capabilities” and mainly forage “on the forest floor.”
Records of white-faced partridges at Meru Betiri National Park are “extremely scant,” the study said. The park’s “last scientific report” of the species was in 1980, but the sighting had “unclear” details.
Now, researchers had several photos of this “elusive” species living at the park — the first such record in about 40 years and a “noteworthy rediscovery” for the area.
Trail cameras documented white-faced partridges four times in 2018 and once in 2021, the study said and photos show. The birds were seen alone and in groups of up to four, “engaging in activities such as self-grooming, foraging on the forest floor, and crossing forest ground.”
The rediscovery, although exciting for conservationists, is still just the beginning.
“This bird species is a potential target for poaching and trading as it has been traded in the Java-Bali bird market for 27 years,” researchers said.
“We encourage further research to appraise the ecology of the white-faced partridge in (Meru Betiri National Park), including population estimates, and habitat suitability models,” researchers said. “The findings will support the (park) management as the primary conservation authority in designing and implementing appropriate conservation strategies for the white-faced partridge.”
Meru Betiri National Park is on the southeastern coast of Java Island, which is also home to Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta on the island’s northwestern coast.
