The southern black korhaan (''Afrotis afra''), also known as the black bustard, is a species of bird in the bustard family,

Otididae Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large, terrestrial birds living mainly in dry grassland areas and on the steppes of the Old World. They range in length from . They make up the family Otididae (, formerly known as Otidae). Bustards ...

. This small bustard is found in southwestern

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, from

Namaqualand Namaqualand (khoekhoe: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into ...

, south to

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and east to Makhanda. It prefers semi-arid habitats such as grasslands, shrublands and savannas where it can easily prey on ground-dwelling arthropods and eat seeds. It reproduces yearly in the spring and will lay about one or two eggs per breeding season. Numbers have declined rapidly as much of its habitat has been converted to agricultural land and remaining tracts are often fragmented. Due to this

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, the species is considered vulnerable by the

IUCN Red List 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 biol ...

Taxonomy

The southern black korhaan was one of the many bird species originally described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in the 1758 10th edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'', where it was given the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

of ''Otis afra''. Formerly known as ''Eupodotis afra'', it is now classified as ''Afrotis afra.'' They belong to the bustard family, Otididae. It was previously thought that the southern black korhaan and the

northern black korhaan The northern black korhaan (''Afrotis afraoides''), also known as the white-quilled bustard, is a species of bird in the bustard family, Otididae. It is widely distributed across Southern Africa. Its habitat is primarily open grassland and scrub ...

were the same species (the northern black korhaan being a sub-species, ''E. afra afroaoides''). They are now classified as different species due to their disjunct ranges and habitats, and differences in plumage, vocalizations and social systems. They also have differences in their

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

. "Southern black korhaan" has been designated as the official common name for the species by the

International Ornithologists' Union The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC).

Description

The southern black korhaan is a ground-dwelling bird with some

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

. The male's main body plumage is of a checkered black and white with a black underbelly and neck. It also displays some white on the underwings, on the cheeks and in stripes over the eyes. The female, in contrast, has the whole of her head, neck and breast the same colour as her body, which is checkered brown and white. Both the female and the male have bright yellow legs. The male is slightly larger than the female. The male has a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

of 27 cm (10.6 in) to 28 cm (11.0 in) and the female a wingspan of 25 cm (9.8 in) to 26 cm (10.2 in). The tail is about 12 cm (4.7 in) to 13 cm (5.1 in) long. The male's bill is larger with a length of 3.8 cm to 3.9 cm (1.5 in), while the female's is about 3.5 cm (1.4 in) long. The bill is of a reddish colour with a black tip. Lifespan averages 10 years.

Distribution and habitat

The southern black korhaan is endemic to southwestern South Africa, ranging from

, south to

, and east to Makhanda. It occupies about . It prefers open, semi-arid habitats such as shrub-lands and savannahs where it can easily prey on grass-dwelling arthropods, also grasslands adjoining marshland.

Behaviour

Vocalisation

Vocalisation has been described as a "continuous cackling sound". It is mostly the male that calls, as it vocalizes very often and very loudly. The call is a raucous "knock-me-down, knock-me-down".

Breeding

The southern black korhaan is a

polygynous Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any ...

species, which means males mate with multiple females. To attract females, males will display high flying. They breed in the spring. Females lays one or two eggs in a depression in the soil and covers them with strands of grass. The eggs are of an olive or brown colour with some dark black spots. Only the females provide

parental care Parental care is a behavioural and evolutionary strategy adopted by some animals, involving a parental investment being made to the evolutionary fitness of offspring. Patterns of parental care are widespread and highly diverse across the animal k ...

as they take care of the eggs and then raise the chicks.

Diet

Southern Black Korhaan (Afrotis afra) male (31992155464)

This is an omnivorous species. Two-thirds of its diet is made up of

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s, and it will eat termites, beetles, grasshoppers and ants. The rest of its diet is composed of plant matter, mostly seeds. It partakes in a mutualistic relationship with ''

Acacia cyclops ''Acacia cyclops'', commonly known as coastal wattle, cyclops wattle, one-eyed wattle, red-eyed wattle, redwreath acacia, western coastal wattle, rooikrans, rooikrans acacia, is a coastal shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae. Native to Au ...

,'' a species of

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

; the southern black korhaan benefits from the seeds as they are a readily available food source, and in return, disperses the seeds to good germination sites. The southern black korhaan will also ingest grit and other small rocks to help in digestion by assisting the grinding process in the

gizzard The gizzard, also referred to as the ventriculus, gastric mill, and gigerium, is an organ found in the digestive tract of some animals, including archosaurs (pterosaurs, crocodiles, alligators, dinosaurs, birds), earthworms, some gastropods, so ...

. A study has also shown that two thirds of birds have nematode parasites in their intestinal tract.

Status and conservation

Recent studies have shown that the southern black korhaan's population has been decreasing lately, which has raised concerns about its conservation status. The species was once very common but it is now becoming rarer as its habitat is being fragmented. Hence, it has been deemed vulnerable by the

of threatened species since October 1, 2016. The primary threat to these species is the conversion of natural vegetation to agricultural lands as well as

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

. This has caused

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes ...

and a reduction in available food sources. This reduction in habitat also means less suitable breeding grounds, which has not only affected breeding success, but chick and egg survival rates. Indeed, agricultural lands do not provide sufficient plant cover to protect them from predators such as the

Pied Crow The pied crow (''Corvus albus'') is a widely distributed African bird species in the crow genus. Structurally, the pied crow is better thought of as a small crow-sized raven, especially as it can hybridise with the Somali crow (dwarf raven) wher ...

. Other threats include climate change, human disturbance and diseases.

References

External links

Southern Black Bustard (''Afrotis afra'')
- Alive: Handbook of the birds of the world
Southern Black Bustard (''Afrotis afra'')
- Birdlife International
Southern Black Bustard vocalization
- e-Bird
Southern Black Bustard vocalization and distribution
- Xeno-canto

- VIREO (Drexel University) * ttp://www.oiseaux.net/birds/southern.black.korhaan.html Southern Black Korhaan (Outarde Korhaan)- Oiseaux.net {{Taxonbar, from=Q864381

southern black korhaan The southern black korhaan (''Afrotis afra''), also known as the black bustard, is a species of bird in the bustard family, Otididae. This small bustard is found in southwestern South Africa, from Namaqualand, south to Cape Town and east to Makh ...

Endemic birds of South Africa

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot