Tag Archives: Centropus toulou ssp. assumptionis

Centropus toulou ssp. assumptionis Nicoll

Assumption Coucal (Centropus toulou ssp. assumptionis)  

The Malagasy Coucal (Centropus toulou (Müller)) occurs all over Madagascar, while two additional subspecies are known to inhabit some of the islands of the so-called Aldabra group of the Seychelles Islands, the Aldabra atoll and Assumption Island.

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The subspecies that once inhabited the small islet of Assumption was originally described in 1906 as a full species. The discoverer of that form, M. J. Nicholl, noted in 1908 in his book ‘Three Voyages of a Naturalist, being an account of many little-known islands in three oceans visited by the “Valhalla,” R.Y.S.’:  

We had not proceeded far before we heard the long bubbling note of a lark-heeled cuckoo, and soon found the bird sitting in a thick bush near its nest – a large domed structure built of dried grasses, and containing two perfectly white eggs. This “cuckoo”, which is, by the way, not a true cuckoo, builds its own nests and rears its own young. The Assumption species is closely allied to the one I have mentioned as seen in the Forêt d’Ambre [Madagascar], but is somewhat larger. Although they were extraordinary tame, we were unable to catch any of them alive, as they rarely left the thickest parts of the bushes.” [1]

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The island was already overrun by rats at this point, trees and bushes were felled for building houses and as firewood, and finally guano was quarried on the island, which led to the almost complete destruction of the native vegetation – and thus to the extinction of the local wildlife populations.

This was apparently also the last time when the Assumption Coucal was seen.

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References:  

[1] M. J. Nicoll: Three Voyages of a Naturalist, being an account of many little-known islands in three oceans visited by the “Valhalla,” R.Y.S.. London: Witherby & Co. 1908  

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Malagasy Coucal (Centropus toulou (Müller)); nominate form

Depiction from: ‘Alfred Grandidier: Histoire Physique, Naturelle et Politique de Madagascar. Paris: à l’Imprimerie Nationale 1836-1921’

(public domain)

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edited: 08.10.2020