![The seek for the Jerdon’s courser must be deepened [Commentary]](https://foreignshoresnrinews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Cameratrap-image-of-a-Jerdons-Courser-from-Sri-Lankamalleswara-wildlifa-sanctuary-Credits-P-Jeganath.jpeg)
- The elusive and nocturnal Jerdon’s courser was noticed in Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh in 1986 and once more in 2004. Final month, a gaggle of birders recorded its name.
- The seek for the chook been confined to a really small geographic space in and round Lankamalleswara, primarily via camera-trap surveys and a short passive acoustic monitoring undertaking.
- Human sources are missing for revolutionary approaches comparable to coordinated subject surveys involving volunteer birdwatchers, and interviews with communities most aware of the panorama.
- The views within the commentary are that of the creator.
Solely a handful of individuals alive have ever seen one. They usually’re all ageing, with waning hope of ever seeing one once more. For those who’re fortunate sufficient to get them to open up about their once-in-a-lifetime encounter with this superstar, they’d probably narrate it to you prefer it occurred yesterday. In lots of respects, the Jerdon’s courser is an oddity: nocturnal and secretive, sure to a really particular open scrub forest habitat, and with its closest relative, the three-banded courser that lives on a very completely different continent. Scientist P. Jeganathan, who studied this chook for his Ph.D., describes the way it takes off “vertically upwards, like a helicopter” when flushed or startled into flight.
Just a few birds have captivated the minds of ornithologists, birdwatchers, and hobbyists just like the Jerdon’s courser. Written off to the historical past books and introduced again to life after its rediscovery in Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh in 1986, solely to quietly slip again into the books after it was final seen in 2004. Twenty years on, it refuses to fade from the general public creativeness, igniting information articles and debates round its existence to at the present time. You could be questioning how properly the media buzz round this near-mythical enigma could have translated into subject efforts to search for it.
Sadly, since its final confirmed report, efforts to relocate the courser have been confined to a really small geographic space in and round Lankamalleswara, primarily via camera-trap surveys and a short passive acoustic monitoring undertaking targeted on listening for the courser, relatively than ‘photographing’ it. None of them managed to assemble any conclusive proof that the chook nonetheless exists within the cradle of its rediscovery.
Replace: On August 24, a gaggle of birders recorded the decision of the Jerdon’s courser in Lankamalla Hills, Andhra Pradesh.
Pay attention: Wild Frequencies: Discover them
It’s time to broaden the search
I’ve been bitten by the courser bug ever since I first examine it as a baby. One in every of my deepest regrets just isn’t having been born early sufficient to go searching for it whereas it was nonetheless at Lankamalleswara, but when something, this has solely made me decided to search for it in all of the unknown, unsurveyed habitat that’s nonetheless on the market. Though Lankamalleswara represents solely a tiny fraction of the open scrub forest habitat preferrred for the courser, efforts to search for it outdoors the Kadapa district have been few and in between.
After months of scouting for preferrred open scrub forest patches in several elements of Andhra Pradesh on Google Earth, we set out on a reconnaissance mission to ground-truth some fantastic-looking spots for the courser in July 2025. After a brief pilgrimage to its former dwelling at Lankamalleswara, we drove north to a small city named Yerragondapalem within the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh. I’d ready and completed all of the homework, learn each paper and subject word there was, and marked out habitat patches that appeared promising on satellite tv for pc view.
By day, we’d drive down to clean forest patches to survey habitats. A few of them appeared improbable; huge tracts of lovely, open scrub forest ready to be searched. We discovered a number of fascinating indicator species that most well-liked these open environments: an abundance of rufous-fronted prinias, rock bush-quails, white-tailed ioras, chestnut-bellied and painted sandgrouses, and yellow-wattled lapwings. Additionally it is dwelling to a bunch of distinctive, non-bird wildlife: fan-throated lizards scurry alongside the open patches between bushes, whereas the closely trafficked Indian star tortoise munches on a number of the area’s distinctive shrubs and grasses: zizyphus, carissa, and randia.
By night time, armed with torches, we’d spend just a few hours looking out every patch as finest we may. This fascinating panorama transforms when the solar goes down: the effervescent daytime calls of bulbuls, prinias, and babblers transition into the mellow screeches of nightjars, thick-knees and owls. The nocturnal avifauna right here is unmatched.
The open scrub forests are a melting pot for all 4 of south India’s nightjars that may be heard from a single spot: the “tk-tk-tk-trrrrrk” of Indian nightjars echoes via the open grassy patches, accompanied by the savanna nightjar’s unearthly, metallic “chreeik”. The jungle nightjar’s steady “pikou-pikou-pikou” emanates from clearings in calmly wooded shrubbery, whereas the Jerdon’s nightjar’s “kuhuhu” will be heard from denser patches of scrub alongside streams that circulate down from the mountains. Indian thick-knees, noticed owlets, and lapwings sometimes punctuate the nightjars’ good orchestra. However one member of this orchestra appears to have gone silent.
The Jerdon’s courser was by no means identified to be a really vocal chook, however has been identified to name sometimes throughout nightfall. I used to be left questioning, have been we merely right here within the unsuitable season, since they have been identified to name extra within the winters? Have been we simply unfortunate? Has the courser actually disappeared from all over the place? The solutions lie hidden in huge expanses of scrub jungle but to be explored.
We opportunistically interviewed locals dwelling near patches of scrub forest by exhibiting them photos of the courser and enjoying recordings. A farmer tending to his fields alongside the boundary of some scrub forest exclaimed, “Sure, I’ve seen it! You see them quite a bit round waterbodies; they make numerous noise in our fields,” describing what was most probably a lapwing. Others from the city requested why we travelled this far searching for a chook: “Don’t you’ve birds the place you reside?”
Aitanna, a former hunter turned forest guard from Reddipalle village on the fringes of Sri Lankamelleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, was instrumental to the courser’s rediscovery in 1986. An important (and infrequently ignored) element to discovering the courser may additionally lie with communities who’re most aware of the area’s wildlife: hunters, pastoralists, and farmers.
I got here away from our little expedition with out discovering a courser, however with a mixture of triumph, hope, and equal alarm. Many habitat patches we surveyed have been positioned partly or totally outdoors protected space networks. Shockingly, even scrub forest patches inside protected areas have been lower down and changed by monoculture Eucalyptus plantations. A examine by Senapathi and colleagues revealed {that a} whopping 11-15% of open scrub forest had been cleared within the ten-year interval between 1991 and 2000, and these numbers proceed to develop. We’re in a race towards time to search out and defend the Jerdon’s courser earlier than it succumbs to relentless land-use change.
Traditionally, we’ve been responsible of shedding numerous our wildlife by not understanding their wants, and the courser’s disappearance from Lankamalleswara could also be a harrowing reminder of how inaction could typically be higher than uninformed motion. A now-abandoned canal sits in elements of its most preferrred habitat, quite a few water trenches have been dug via scrub forest virtually all over the place within the area, and irrigated agricultural fields, orchards, and Eucalyptus plantations line what was as soon as lovely scrub jungle. I can also’t assist however surprise, would the courser have lived on if it had by no means been discovered? I’d prefer to assume its rediscovery did extra good than unhealthy for the species, however the truth that we could solely have prolonged its demise by a decade or two doesn’t sound as encouraging.
Do we’ve sufficient sources?
We’re in dire want of a state-wide survey spanning a number of districts in Andhra Pradesh, primarily Kadapa, Kurnool, Prakasam, Anantapur, and Nellore the place most of its appropriate habitat stays. The courser was additionally identified to inhabit elements of Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and possibly even southern elements of Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Though the forest division has partnered with NGOs and analysis institutes up to now to seek for the Jerdon’s courser in and round Lankamalleswara, increasing operations to extra areas in Andhra Pradesh would require mobilising funds and personnel on a scale that’s presently unattainable.
Utilizing simply camera-trap surveys, this is able to even be extraordinarily unbelievable. A examine by Jeganathan and workforce, utilizing camera-traps to detect the presence of coursers, discovered that to have the ability to conclude {that a} Jerdon’s courser wasn’t in a selected patch roughly two hectares in measurement with eight camera-traps deployed every night time would take greater than 458 nights of camera-trapping. That’s greater than a whole 12 months of camera-trapping!
However no highway is simply too lengthy for the prepared traveller. We’re seeing a large progress within the variety of forest department-organised chook surveys within the nation which were wildly profitable via the participation of an ever-growing group of volunteer birdwatchers. Regardless of the dangers, a number of well-organised nocturnal surveys with volunteer participant groups have additionally been carried out efficiently, protecting massive elements of wildlife reserves and nationwide parks on a powerful scale. A few of our largest issues typically have easy, elegant options.
The creator is a wildlife biologist and is presently a analysis affiliate at NCF-India’s chook monitoring workforce.
Quotation:
Jeganathan, P., Inexperienced, R. E., Bowden, C. G., Norris, Ok., Ache, D., & Rahmani, A. (2002). Use of monitoring strips and computerized cameras for detecting Critically Endangered Jerdon’s coursers Rhinoptilus bitorquatus in scrub jungle in Andhra Pradesh, India. Oryx, 36(2), 182-188.
Senapathi, D., Vogiatzakis, I. N., Jeganathan, P., Gill, J. A., Inexperienced, R. E., Bowden, C. G., … & Norris, Ok. (2007). Use of distant sensing to measure change within the extent of habitat for the critically endangered Jerdon’s Courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus in India. Ibis, 149(2), 328-337.
Jeganathan, P., & Wotton, S. R. (2004). The primary recordings of calls of the Jerdon’s courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus (Blyth), household Glareolidae. JOURNAL-BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 101(1), 26-28.
Knox, A. G. (2014). The primary egg of Jerdon’s courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus and a assessment of the early data of this species. Archives of pure historical past, 41(1), 75-93.
Arvind, C., Joshi, V., Charif, R., Jeganathan, P., & Robin, V. V. (2023). Species detection framework utilizing automated recording items: a case examine of the Critically Endangered Jerdon’s courser. Oryx, 57(1), 55-62.
Kasambe, R., Pimplapure, A., & Thosar, G. (2008). In quest of Jerdon’s Courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus in Vidarbha, Maharashtra. Publication for Birdwatchers, 48(6), 89-91.
Bhushan, B. (1986). Rediscovery of the Jerdon’s or double-banded courser Cursorius bitorquatus(Blyth). Journal of the Bombay Pure Historical past Society. Bombay, 83(1), 1-14.
Banner picture: Portray of the Jerdon’s courser. Picture by Subbuka through Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
