An isolated population of the secretive, endemic Aztec Rail (Rallus tenuirostris) in Chihuahua, Mexico
Por:
Moreno-Contreras, Israel, Mondaca-Fernandez, Fernando, Sanchez-Gonzalez, Luis A., Navarro-Siguenza, Adolfo G.
Publicada:
1 sep 2021
Resumen:
Here, we report new distributional information of the Aztec Rail (Rallus
tenuirostris), a Mexican endemic that inhabits freshwater marshes
throughout the highlands of central Mexico. We found an unidentified
rail population during opportunistic area-search surveys between
February and May in 2016 and 2017 along the San Pedro and Conchos rivers
in Chihuahua, Mexico. Given the high phenotypic similarity between some
North American Rallus taxa, we sequenced the mDNA marker ND2 of a
specimen and performed a phylogenetic analysis, which allowed
unequivocal identification. Maximum likelihood analysis placed the
Chihuahuan sample within a lade grouping Aztec Rail samples from central
Mexico. We also performed species distribution modeling (SDM) to assess
habitat suitability of the newly identified Chihuahuan population of the
Aztec Rail, which would account for its possible year-round permanence
in the area. SDM results suggest that the Conchos River has the highest
habitat suitability, followed by San Francisco del Mezquital. The
environmental variables that mostly contributed to SDM were standard
deviation of the enhanced vegetation index. annual mean temperature, and
precipitation seasonality. The apparently small population of the Aztec
Rail in Chihuahua may be either the result of recent dispersals from its
core range in central Mexico, or a relict population from a formerly
larger distributional range; further studies are needed to clarify this
issue.
Filiaciones:
Moreno-Contreras, Israel:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Ciencias Biol, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Fac Ciencias, Dept Biol Evolut, Museo Zool, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
Mondaca-Fernandez, Fernando:
Univ Autonoma Chihuahua, Fac Zootecnia & Ecol, Chihuahua, Mexico
Sanchez-Gonzalez, Luis A.:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Fac Ciencias, Dept Biol Evolut, Museo Zool, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
Navarro-Siguenza, Adolfo G.:
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Fac Ciencias, Dept Biol Evolut, Museo Zool, Mexico City, DF, Mexico
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