An expedition to Malawi’s highest mountain sought to confirm the presence of a rare subspecies of spotted ground thrush, last spotted in 2005.

Two birds and one nest with baby birds were found in the Chisongeli forest, the biggest intact block of Afromontane rainforest left in Malawi, which experts say lacks adequate protection.

Illegal logging and snares threaten the birds and other endemic wildlife in the Chisongeli forest, with the ground thrush expedition finding 68 hunting snares in just one 100-meter (330-foot) transect.

The researchers say complete protection of the forest is needed to save the last spotted ground thrush and other endemic wildlife on Malawi’s Mount Mulanje.

Mount Mulanje’s bare granite face looms above the lush surrounding landscape. Said to be the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lonely Mountain (home to Smaug the dragon), Malawi’s highest mountain also holds a treasure: a mating pair of spotted ground thrushes, one of the rarest birds in the world.

“Ground thrushes are like the holy grail for birders,” Mathias D’haen, operations manager for African Parks, told Mongabay. The subspecies of spotted ground thrush found on Mt. Mulanje, Geokichla guttata belcheri, may be among the holiest. In 1989, scientists assumed that only 40 pairs were left. The last of its kind was spotted in 2005.

“Belcheri has only been found in four locations in Malawi, and three of these have been nearly completely deforested,” Ruben Foquet, a project leader for Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation (BINCO), told Mongabay.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.mongabay.com/2021/11/the-last-spotted-ground-thrush-on-malawis-lonely-mountain/amp/