The Chinese monal or Chinese impeyan (''Lophophorus lhuysii'') is a

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family (biology), family Phasianidae in the order (biology), order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera na ...

. This monal is restricted to mountains of central

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The plumage is highly

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...

. The male has a large drooping purple crest, a metallic green head, blue bare skin around the eyes, a reddish gold mantle, bluish green feathers and black underparts. The female is dark brown with white on its throat. This is the largest of the three

monal A monal is a bird of genus ''Lophophorus'' of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. Description The males all have colorful, iridescent plumage. Their physique is rather plump. Their diet consists of plants such as roots and bulbs and insects. D ...

s and, by mass, is one of the largest pheasants (after the

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

s and the

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and

Indian peafowl The Indian peafowl (''Pavo cristatus''), also known as the common peafowl, and blue peafowl, is a peafowl species native to the Indian subcontinent. It has been introduced to many other countries. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and ...

s). Males measure in length while females measure . The mean weight is reportedly .Biddle, Tami Davis, ''Pheasants, Partridges, and Grouse : A Guide to the Pheasants, Partridges, Quails, Grouse, Guineafowl, Buttonquails, and Sandgrouse of the World (Princeton Field Guides)''. Princeton University Press (2002), The scientific name, ''lhuysii'', commemorates the French statesman

Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys (; 19 November 1805 – 1 March 1881) was a French diplomat. Born in Paris, he was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. The scion of a wealthy and noble house, he excelled in rhetoric. He quickly became interested i ...

. Due to ongoing habitat loss and degradation, limited range and illegal hunting, the Chinese monal is evaluated as vulnerable on

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. It is listed on Appendix I of

CITES CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

In captivity

London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o ...

and

Beijing Zoo The Beijing Zoo is a zoological park in Xizhimen, Xicheng District, Beijing, the capital of the China. Founded in 1906 during the late Qing dynasty, it is the oldest zoo in china and oldest public park in northern China. The zoo is also a center ...

have kept Chinese monal but all attempts to establish a captive breeding population failed.

References

BirdLife Species Factsheet

External links

* ARKive
images and video of the Chinese monal ''(Lophophorus lhuysii)''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q662861 Chinese monal Birds of China Birds of Central China Endemic birds of China Chinese monal

In captivity

See also

References

External links