Cabot's tragopan (''Tragopan caboti'') is a

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...

found in south-east

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. The common and scientific names of this large bird both commemorate the ornithologist

Samuel Cabot III Samuel Cabot III (September 20, 1815 – April 13, 1885) was an American physician, surgeon, and ornithologist, as well as a member of the wealthy and prominent Cabot family. Early life Samuel Cabot III was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Septem ...

. Other common names include the Chinese tragopan and the yellow-bellied tragopan. The population is divided into two

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...

, of which the nominate race is found in the provinces of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

, and

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

, and ''T. c. guangxiensis'' is confined to northeastern

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ...

and southern

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...

. The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed it as being a "

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnera ...

Description

Cabot's tragopan is a plump ground-dwelling bird with relatively short legs. The male grows to a length of about and a weight of around while the female is about shorter and weighs around . The head of the male is black with reddish-orange streaks on either side and on the neck and similar-coloured bare skin on the cheeks and around the eye. Below the beak dangle blue and orange decorative, inflatable wattles and there are a pair of fleshy blue "horns" over the eyes. The upper parts of the body are reddish-brown, with large buff markings and the underparts are straw-coloured. The female is altogether a less-colourful bird. The head and upper parts are reddish-brown spotted with black and marked with triangular-shaped white patches and the underparts are greyish-brown with white markings.

Distribution and habitat

Cabot's tragopan is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to mountain ranges in southeastern China where it is present in the provinces of

and

. Its typical habitat is subtropical evergreen forest and other forests with a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees. Its altitudinal range is and it is also present above the

treeline The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

. Populations are fragmented as it has limited ability to disperse and seems not to move across gaps in forest cover of over .

Behaviour

Cabot's tragopan feeds mostly on the ground, foraging for roots, shoots, buds, flowers, fruits and seeds. A favourite food is the fruit and leaves of ''

Daphniphyllum macropodum ''Daphniphyllum macropodum'' is a shrub or small tree found in China, Japan and Korea. Like all species in the genus ''Daphniphyllum'', ''D. macropodum'' is dioecious, that is male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The timber is u ...

'', a small tree which is also used for roosting at night. Small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chorda ...

s are also sometimes eaten. Breeding takes place in the spring and Cabot's tragopan has an elaborate courtship ritual. The nest is usually built off the ground in a fork in a tree and is made of grasses, mosses, feathers and leaves, but sometimes an empty nest of another bird species is used. A clutch of two to six eggs is laid and incubation is performed solely by the female. The eggs hatch in about twenty eight days and the female broods the young for two or three days after that. They then all leave the nest together, the chicks being able to fly soon after they hatch, and remain together for the winter, possibly joining with another family in a small group.

Conservation status

Cabot's tragopan is assessed by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

as being a "

". This is because it is estimated that there are fewer than ten thousand individuals and that the number of birds is decreasing. The main threat it faces are loss of habitat as natural forest is converted to agricultural land or plantations of conifers and bamboo. This reduces the availability of suitable nesting sites in the forks of trees, but it is hoped that the provision of artificial nesting platforms may help. The bird is present in some protected areas but these are mostly small. Illegal hunting still takes place in some areas. The zoo studbook holder for this species is Zoo Praha.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q902930

Cabot's tragopan Cabot's tragopan (''Tragopan caboti'') is a pheasant found in south-east China. The common and scientific names of this large bird both commemorate the ornithologist Samuel Cabot III. Other common names include the Chinese tragopan and the yellow ...