Crow lumping – my list is not happy.

Evening all,

A colleague at the Royal Zoological Society emailed me the first page of a paper due out soon on lumping all five Australian crow/raven species into one species. Now, I know that lumps sometime happen, but having to take Australian Raven, Little Raven and Torresian Crow off of my year and life lists seems a bit excessive. The authors state that the morphological differences between the five don’t warrant full species status for each and their DNA work appears to back it up. As B-A doesn’t do attachments, I’ve housed a copy of the first page (all that’s available at the moment) on my website if anyone’s interested: http://www.tonykeenebirds.co.uk/uni/JAvGen-advance-83474.pdf Given that the IOC can often support splits or lumps from the evidence of a single study, I would expect this one to be up for an IOC proposal soon. I thought most research supported splitting everything these days, but I wonder if we’re going to see a reversal of this over the next few years, like they did in the 1960s… Cheers,

Tony

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9 comments to Crow lumping – my list is not happy.

  • "Mike Collard"

    Tony: you will pleased to hear that a UK birder was also concerned that he would loose a few species: well thought out and great fun rgds Mike UK

  • Alan Gillanders

    Tony, I did enjoy it; just wish I had figured your scam by myself. I was a bit dubious after reading a bit of it but after being alerted to the date I reread it and found lots to smirk about. A more educated person would have found more. Thanks for going to the trouble of creating a little fun. Alan

  • John Harris

    Shonky, shonky!! I should have read the date first…….. Got more than a few people’s feathers ruffled, so well done!!

    *Yours in all things* “*GREEN”* ** *John Harris* *Croydon, Vic* * Proprietor – Wildlife Experiences Ecologist/Zoologist* *Nature Photographer* *Wildlife Guide* *wildlifeexperiences@gmail.com* *0409090955* ** *President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria* *(www.fncv.org.au)* ===============================

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  • "Tony Keene"

    Two hours well-spent on making that ‘paper’- hope a few of you at least enjoyed it! Thanks to Russ for not instantly bowling me out on that one! Cheers,

    Tony

  • "Elizabeth Shaw"

    What about those of us that have Forest Raven on our lists too! Elizabeth Shaw Phillip Island Victoria

  • Alan Gillanders

    Me too. Have a look at the names of the alleged authors. They are all German crows. Regards, Alan

  • "Jeff Davies"

    Got me!! Cheers Jeff.

  • "Jeff Davies"

    G’day Tony,

    three ssp freely cohabiting in Victoria but without interbreeding and maintaining structural type and distinctive calls eg behaving like species. I would be astounded if the IOC just automatically ran with this one.

    Cheers Jeff.

  • bob gosford

    Tony,

    Remind me please. What is the date tomorrow?

    Cheers,

    Bob Gosford Darwin NT