Jerdon's Courser

Unlike the two African members of its genus, this nocturnal shorebird occurs in southern India. It was believed to be extinct for most of the twentieth century (86 years), until it was rediscovered by a local trapper in 1986. Since then, all confirmed records stem from the vicinity of a single wildlife sanctuary, where it occupies sparse foothill scrub.

Description

27 cm in height 

Crown and hindneck are dark brown with a whitish crown stripe  

Broad white supercilia that sometimes meet as a V on the nape  

Tinged cream in front of the eyes  

Rest of the upperparts and the broad breast band are a pinkish, sandy brown  

Brown breast is bordered above and below by two narrow, dusky bands  

Chin and throat are white  

White band across the lower breast and bordered below by a narrow, dusky band

Two brown breast bands

Crown is mostly blackish  

Broad buffish supercilium  

Orange/chestnut throat patch

Rest of underparts are primarily white  

Upperwing-covers are edged white  

Flight feathers are black with white patches at wingtips on outermost 3-4 primaries  

Underwing-coverts are mainly creamy white with a patch of black and rufous at the bend of the wing  

The species’ mostly black tail and white patch near tips of black primaries can be seen in flight (Gouse S., 2015)

Short yellow bill with a black tip at both mandibles and a yellow base  

Legs are yellowish-white  

This is the only courser with white in the wingtips  

Head and neck pattern are distinctive

The Jerdon’s Courser is one of three coursers that exist in India  

The other two are the Cream-Colored Courser (Cursorius cursor) and the Indian Courser (Cursorius coromandelicus)   

Jerdon's Courser is the only member of the Rhinoptilus genus in India (Gouse S., 2015)  

Large, wide eyes    

Broad white lores and supercilium over dark cheek patches (Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, 2010)

Brown iris  

Nocturnal  

Dense, whitish supercilium strings around each eye  

Foreneck is rufous and split from the brown breast by a white band  

Upper plumage is greyish-brown    

Lower breast is split by a second white band (this is why it was originally named the Double-Banded Courser)  

Pale belly  

White wing bar that can be seen in flight (Mahesh, 2023)  

Juvenile plumage is unknown but suspected to have pale-fringed upperparts and indistinct head and breast markings like the species' Afrotropical relatives  

Closely related to the Bronze-Winged Courser (Rhinoptilus chalcopterus) in Africa with both inhabiting lightly wooded areas

Seen as relative of the Three-Banded Courser (Rhinoptilus cinctus) that lives in Eastern Africa (Madras Courier)

The two species have similar characteristics and share a common ancestor that once existed across Africa and India 

The existence of this ancestor suggests that an environmental corridor filled with dry forest and savannah once existed that connected East Africa with India 

This corridor eroded over time due to the emergence of environmental barriers such as the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Desert that, over time, led this common ancestor to split into the Jerdon’s Courser and Three-Banded Courser species we see today (Ripley and Beeler, 1989)   

Life span 7.3 years (Data Zone-Birdlife International)

Habitat  

This species likes scrub jungle with open areas and shrubland environments (IUCN Red List) 

Range includes Pennar and Godavari Valleys in Southern Andhra Pradesh in India  

Specimens found in southeast Maharashtra and northeast Andhra Pradesh  

This species was thought to be extinct until 1986 when the bird was rediscovered in Lankamalai in bare, grassless patches amongst brushes in foothill scrub that contained both thorny and non-thorny species (Gouse S., 2015)

Since 1986, the bird has been found at Lankamalai, Velikonda, and Palakonda hill ranges with the most recent sighting being in Kadapa District in 2009  

This species like to inhabit rocky, undulating land with sparse, thorny (Acacia, Zizyphus, and Carissa) and non-thorny (Cassia, Hardwickia, and Anogeissus) scrub jungle with bushes in foothills that are sometimes close to bodies of water  

Prefers bare, grassless patches of open ground among scrub bushes in zones between denser forests and modified habitats  

Present in areas where the density of large bushes are around 2 m tall and is between 300-700 hectares and the density of small bushes is less than 1,000 hectares  

Not seen near agricultural areas or artesian wells  

Hides amongst thorny Carissa bushes around 50 cm tall  

Maybe sedentary due to a rounded wing  

According to local witnesses, Jerdon's Coursers are seen mainly in the hills during the rainy season in flocks of 7-8 and remain in the foothills the rest of the year  

Other Information 

The species diet is unknown but it is thought to be a nocturnal insectivore

Vocal behavior has been previously confused with that of Indian Thick-Knee (Burhinus Indicus)  

Breeding behavior unknown  

A clutch of two yellow eggs that was attributed to the bird was found in 1895 (Birds of the World)

In 1917, Earnest Gilbert Milton, a veterinary surgeon, found a mysterious, oval-shaped egg that was pale yellow in color with brown and black blotches (Madras Courier).

The egg was found in the Kolar Gold Fields in the east of Bangalore, 200 km south from where the species was rediscovered in 1986 (Knox and Piertney, 2013)

Almost a century later in 2013, DNA analysis conducted at the University of Aberdeen's Zoology Museum confirmed that this egg indeed belonged to Jerdon's Courser and that the place where the egg was found may indeed still sustain a population of this species (IUCN Red List)

Jerdon's courser is featured as a stamp in India (Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, 2010) 

Jerdon's Courser has been classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. Their last assessment was in 2016. The population of this species is thought to be between 50-249 individuals. Even though much is unknown about Jerdon's Courser, experts believe that the species' population is small and in decline due to the loss of the scrub forest and shrubland habitats that it likes. They suspect that this small population inhabits the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh and the extreme south of Madhya Pradesh in India. Members of this species have been found at six localities near the Lankamalai, Velikonda, and Palakonda hill ranges in southern Andhra Pradesh. They are believed to belong to the same population, the majority of which are present in the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary (IUCN Red List).

Due to its small population and limited range, many experts, such as Ripley and Beeler (1989), believe that the species is close to extinction, "Although it is impossible to presently give an accurate estimate of the distribution and size of this remnant population, the assumption is that the species' numbers are few and probably dissected into tiny subpopulations. It is safe to say that Jerdon's Courser, although revived to the status of the living, maintains, at best, a tenuous hold on viability, and extinction for the species may only be a matter of time."

For a distribution map of Jerdon's Courser, click here.

The rediscovery of Jerdon's Courser in 1986 and subsequent sightings of the species led to the creation of two wildlife sanctuaries in India: Sri Lankamaleswara and Sri Penusula Narasimha.

The Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary lies between the Nallamalais and Sechachalam hill ranges at the center of the Eastern Ghats and covers 464 square kilometers. It extends 137-784 m and is bordered in the west by dense scrub jungle and dry red-sanders bearing forest and by southern dry mixed deciduous forests on higher elevations in the Lankamalai hills. In the east, agricultural fields, orchards, and croplands are seen in valleys near the Sagileru River that is a tributary of the Pennar river in the southern and western parts of the sanctuary.  

The Sri Penusula Narasimha sanctuary extends through the Kadapa, Nellore, and Andhra Pradesh districts and borders Sri Lankamaleswara. It is 1,031 square kilometers and encompasses the Turupukonda hills, part of the Velikonda hill ranges, the Somasila Dam, and the Kandaleru reservoir. In 1986 and during the 1990s, there were some sightings of Jerdon's Coursers in the western slope of the Turupukonda Foot hills in this sanctuary.

Both sanctuaries are separated by the Sagileru River and are designated as Important Bird Areas by the Indian government. Another reason why these two wildlife sanctuaries were created was to protect hundreds of hectares of suitable scrub habitat that would have been destroyed otherwise as a result of the Telugu-Ganga canal (Jeganathan and Rahmani, 2005).

Jerdon's Courser is considered a priority species by the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016) and is one of the twelve species included in the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats Program (both sponsored by the Indian Government).

Within the last two decades there has been some hope for the Jerdon's Courser's conservation. An irrigation scheme within the bird's range was foiled due to pressure from local conservationists and the forest where the species was rediscovered near Kadapa was turned into the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. The local tribes are charged with protecting the sanctuary. Another reserve of 500 km was designated further south and another 1,300 km in the southeast. It is thought that the species may exist in other unexplored areas within the Godavari Valley, north Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu (Birds of the World).

Although detections continued at Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary until 2008 and 2009, the last verifiable record there was from a camera trap in September 2004.

Jerdon's Courser is known to inhabit the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh and the extreme south of Madhya Pradesh (both places in India). This bird is known far and wide as being very rare and elusive.

Nineteenth Century Sightings

All nineteenth century records point towards the Jerdon's Courser being in Andhra Pradesh and areas near Maharashtra. Jerdon's Courser was first described by Edward Blyth in 1848 as Macrotarsius bitorquatus. He later named the species after the man who collected the specimen, the surgeon-naturalist Thomas Caverhill Jerdon. Jerdon claimed the species rested in the hills above the Eastern Ghats near Nellore in the Kadapa District (Rahmani, 2023). In May 1867, W.T Blanford saw a Jerdon's Courser near Sirocha in the Godavari Valley in eastern Maharashtra. Four years later in March 1871, Blanford saw the bird again near Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh. In 1900, Howard Campbell saw a Jerdon's Courser near the Pennar and Godavari river catchment areas in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. This would be the last time anyone would see the Jerdon's Courser for 86 years (Madras Courier).

Rediscovery

In the twentieth century, all sightings of Jerdon's Courser come from Andhra Pradesh leading many to believe that the bird is endemic to that region.

After not being seen for 86 years and presumed by many to be extinct, Jerdon's Courser was rediscovered when a bird was caught in a trapper's net in January 1986. The trapper, who was named Aitana, showed the bird to Bharat Bhushan who worked as an ornithologist at the Bombay Natural History Society. He confirmed the identity of the bird as a Jerdon's Courser and marked her location near Reddipali village in the Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh (Madras Courier). This happened as part of a year-long survey conducted by the Bombay Natural History Society in the Eastern Ghats. This survey had succeeded where two previous surveys (1930s and 1970s) had failed in the same area. The area where Jerdon's Courser was rediscovered became the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. Since then, the only sightings have come from a few sites in and around Sri Lankamaleswara. After the species' rediscovery, cooperation between several organizations such as the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the Darwin Initiative, and the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, led to a variety of projects geared towards tracking and finding new sites where Jerdon's Courser might be living. Between the years 1986-1995, there were a total of eight sightings of Jerdon’s Courser (with six of them occurring in a single night) (Gouse S., 2015). In 1994, a survey was conducted in southern Andhra Pradesh that included the Kadapa, Nellore, Chitoor, and Anantapur districts (Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, 2010).This survey was done in conjunction with another by Samant and Elangovan between May 1994-October 1995 who focused in and around Sri Lankamaleswara (Mahesh, 2023). Tracking strips and tape transects were used during this survey. As a result of these efforts, three new sites in and around Sri Lankamaleswara were discovered in addition to the only known site that consisted of a few hundred meters of scrub jungle near Reddipali in the Sagileru Valley where Jerdon's Courser was rediscovered. The birds were close to small bodies of water in undulating grasslands with thin thorny scrub (Gouse S., 2015). Below are the areas where there were confirmed sightings of Jerdon's Courser between the years 1986-2000:

Lankamalai, Kadapa

Turupukonda, Kadapa

Veukonda-Chitvel, Kadapa

Sanipaya, Kadapa

Rayachoti Foothills, Kadapa

Velikonda-Somasila, Nellore 

Here are areas where there were unconfirmed sightings of Jerdon's Courser during the same time period:

Nandalur, Kadapa

Vontimitta, Kadapa

Kanamalopalle, Kadapa

Mylavaram, Kadapa

Madhavaram, Kadapa

Udayagiri, Nellore

Dachur, Nellore

Penchalakona, Nellore

Venkatagiri, Nellore

Penakucherla, Anantapur

Mamandur, Chitoor

Erpedo, Chitoor

Nagalapuram, Chitoor

Bonamanda, Chitoor (Mahesh, 2023)

Twenty-First Century Sightings (2000-2009)

In 2000, only a single site a few hundred meters in diameter was known to contain Jerdon's Courser near Reddipali in the Sagileru Valley. Since that time, new surveys and methods have been used to find new sites (Jeganathan and Rahmani, 2005).

For example, organizations searching for Jerdon's Courser have used tracking strips and automatic cameras to detect the species. Jerdon's Courser is hard to find due to the bird's nocturnal behavior and elusive nature that makes visual searches during the day very ineffective. Before the 2000s, Jerdon's Courser were found during nighttime walks in lightly wooded scrub jungle through the use of a torch and an electronic buzzer that would mask footfalls. This method proved unreliable because its efficiency would vary on factors relating to habitat such as bush density and the degree of ground vegetation. With this method, a Jerdon's Courser would only be detected once every several hours, if at all. In 2001, a team led by P. Jeganathan placed tracking strips and automatic cameras in open scrub areas in the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary as well as within areas of open pasture and crop fields outside the sanctuary. Ten tracking strips were installed between January 30-March 7, 2001. Footprints were collected using plaster casts and photos were taken of each strip to be measured and analyzed later. These strips were checked at an interval of 1-4 days up to April 8, 2001. Automatic cameras were installed between January 29-February 15, 2001. Researchers used Trailmaster cameras with each containing a TM1500 infrared transmitter, a TM35-1 camera and a receiver/logger. These cameras were put near the tracking strips and were triggered when birds would trip over an infrared beam. They were hidden in bushes in such a way that the infrared beam would activate centimeters from the ground. They were deployed at dusk and removed at dawn due to human activity during the day. Camera shields and camouflage helped keep the cameras hidden. These cameras operated for 42 nights and were able to capture two photos of Jerdon's Courser. One of them was a famous photo of Jerdon's Courser taken on February 14, 2001 that now serves as the background for the profile Cornell Lab's Birds of the World has made for the species. With regards to the tracking strips, 11 of the 18 strips recorded footprints of Jerdon's Coursers. Researchers were able to successfully identify Jerdon's Courser footprints compared to other endemic species. These footprints could be distinguished, "on the basis of size, the length of the toes relative to one another, and the angle between the outer and inner toes." They also noted that Jerdon's Courser does not have a hind toe which helped with identification. Jeganathan and his team demonstrated how effective tracking strips and automatic cameras were in finding Jerdon's Coursers. However, they cautioned that automatic cameras should not be used alone in large-scale surveys due to the cost of maintaining and deploying them on a daily basis. They suggested that tracking strips are more practical for these types of surveys and automatic cameras should only be used in areas with confirmed sightings of Jerdon's Coursers. This has been advice that researchers, government officials, and others have followed as they continue their search for Jerdon's Courser today (Jeganathan et al., 2002). Thanks to the efforts of Jeganathan and his team three new sites were found using this method. All of these sites were within 15 km of where the Jerdon's Courser was rediscovered near Reddipali in 1986. Unfortunately, one of these sites was destroyed during the construction of the Telugu-Ganga canal (Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, 2010).

Later in the decade, three Jerdon's Coursers were found at Reddipalli near Kadapa in scrub forests below Lankamalai Hills. These hills are located in the Valley of R. Sagileru in the Pennar Valley in southern Andhra Pradesh. Recent records show that Jerdon's Coursers are present in six sites near Lankamalai.

On November 12, 2001, the Jerdon’s Courser’s call was recorded for the first time by P. Jeganathan and Simon Wooton in the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. It was part of a project by Jeganathan and Wooton to use a Marantz PMD222 recorder with an Audio Technica AT815 unidirectional microphone to monitor for Jerdon’s Courser calls within the sanctuary. Jeganathan and Wooton recorded from sunset to 80 minutes after sunset and 80 minutes before sunrise to sunrise. The project lasted from February 2001-May 2002. All calls were analyzed using a Canary 1.2.4 sound analysis package with the calls of endemic species in the area being taken into account. They heard Jerdon’s Coursers between the months of February, June, and October 2001 within the sanctuary but were unable to get a recording. This changed on November 12 when they recorded a Jerdon’s Courser call for the first time around 6 p.m. You can hear the recording here. They were able to make another recording the next day on November 13 at around the same time. Jeganathan and Wooton were able to hear the Jerdon’s Coursers three more times between November 14, 2001 and May 17, 2002 with all calls occurring around 6 p.m. before dusk. Jeganathan and Wooton concluded that Jerdon’s Coursers start their calling period 45-50 minutes after sunset and continue for a few minutes to around 20 minutes. These calls were heard for a period of a few minutes in three different places in the sanctuary and were around 200 m apart from each other. The calls themselves were heard from a distance of 200 to 250 m. They caution that much is still unknown about the Jerdon’s Coursers calls as the species could easily have more of them. Furthermore, while these calls have been observed to occur mainly at dusk, their frequency and sound could vary depending on the season and the weather (Jeganathan and Wotton, 2004). 

In September 2002, four months after their last project, P. Jeganathan and Simon Wooton successfully made another recording of a Jerdon's Courser call. Afterwards, tape transect surveys and playbacks were done in and around Sri Lankamaleswara within 14 km of where the species was rediscovered in Reddipali. Jerdon's Coursers would respond to playback in the evenings after sunset. New locations were found based on the responses. Researchers conducted the playbacks at 403 areas within 14 km near Reddipali (where the species was rediscovered in 1986) (Mahesh, 2023).

The last sightings of Jerdon's Courser were in April 2008 and 2009 when two members of the species were seen in the Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary in the Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh. The fact that the bird has not been seen in more than 15 years has made many birdwatchers, conservationists, and others very nervous for the Jerdon’s Courser’s future. The bird’s elusive nature may protect her from predators but it also means that the species could disappear and no one would know about it. Jeremy Hance with Mongabay News said it best when he said, “As with most forgotten species, simply spreading the word may be enough to save the species from extinction....cryptic species are some of the most difficult to protect from extinction, since they require conservation acts-of-faith, saving places we hope the species still inhabits.”

All known sites are thought to have at least 8 Jerdon's Coursers but there remains a lot of habitat yet to be explored (Birds of the World). This habitat could potentially support hundreds of Jerdon's Coursers. Since 2010, up to 60 camera traps have been deployed across the species' known range. No concrete results have come from these cameras (IUCN Red List).

Jerdon's Coursers is known to inhabit a known range of 19,300 square kilometers (Data Zone-Birdlife International). These birds depend on a restricted range of scrub habitat that is being threatened due to the expansion of agriculture and grazing in the region. Experts note that between the years 1991-2000, 11-15% of this habitat had already been lost. It is unclear how much more habitat has been lost since then (Birds of the World). Between the years 2001-2005, 332 hectares of forest were cleared for agriculture (particularly lemon farms) with 85 hectares of which being scrub jungle. This area fell within 1 km from the known sites where Jerdon's Coursers were detected in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (Jeganathan and Rahmani, 2005). 

The main cause of the Jerdon's Courser's population decline in the last twenty years has been the habitat loss caused by the construction of the Telugu-Ganga canal, the influx of settlers into the species' known range, and the rapid expansion of agriculture and grazing in the region (especially outside the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary where the bird was last seen). Trapping, mining, and the presence of cobras and other predators that eat Jerdon's Courser eggs within their ground nests have also been seen to be detrimental to the continued survival of this population (Mahesh, 2023).

What is interesting is that P. Jeganathan et al., (2004) argue that the ideal habitat for Jerdon’s Courser is scrub habitat with bushes that are 2 m tall, within an area between 300-700 hectares and a bush density less than 1,000 hectares. They further note that, "our most robust finding was that Jerdon's Coursers were most likely to occur in areas of scrub jungle with intermediate densities of large bushes." They conclude that Jerdon’s Courser cannot live in scrub habitats where the bushes that are too low due to overgrazing but, at the same time, they also cannot live in habitats with bushes that are too high due to lack of grazing. Jeganathan and his colleagues recommend that quantitative monitoring should be done with regards to grazing in the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. This poses a problem since local government officials only have so much manpower with which to do the monitoring over a large area. They also do not seem to have a concrete plan with which to do this. Population growth near the sanctuary will only compel more pastoralists to increase their herds and put more pressure on the fragile habitat that the Jerdon’s Courser needs for her survival. It is unclear how (or if) governments officials in Andhra Pradesh can do anything to stem the habitat loss that is to come from this population growth that has only been exacerbated by the construction of the Telugu-Ganga Canal.

From September 2000 to December 2005, a study was conducted by P. Jeganathan and a team of researchers within the scrub jungle present in the Sri Lankamaleswara and Sri Penusula Narasimha wildlife sanctuaries. The main habitat they explored was southern tropical scrub with plant species such as Acacia, Ziziphus rugosa, Carissa carandas, Hardwickia binata, and Anogeissus latifolia. This habitat was bordered by dry, mixed deciduous, Red Sanders-bearing, and dry savannah forest with species such as Pterocarpus santalinus, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia tomentosa, and Phyllanthus emblica. Their study (2008) identified the major threats the Jerdon's Courser currently faces. According to their study, 480 hectares of scrub jungle habitat was cleared during the study period in and around Sri Lankamaleswara (275 of which was cleared for agricultural purposes by farmers who were displaced by floods). Trenches were found to be dug regularly in sites where Jerdon's Coursers were found. These trenches were found near percolation ponds where 0.5-1 hectare(s) were dug to facilitate their construction. That adds up to 2.5-5 hectares of scrub habitat lost. Within the existing scrub jungle, thinning and singling practices were seen where endemic scrub species were cleared except for saplings of various tree species (Hardwickia binata, Anogeissus latifolia, Manikara hexandra, and Soymida febrifuga). More habitat was cleared to dig circular pits around these trees in order to collect rain water. Quarrying was seen in the sanctuaries by local villagers to build their houses.

Jeganathan et al. noted that the construction of the Somasila dam in 1989 displaced 57 villages and forced the villagers to move in areas immediately bordering the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. As of 2005, there were 146 villages near the eastern border of Sri Lankamaleswara and the western border of Sri Penusula Namasimha. They also noted that 15 villages were displaced as a result of the Sri Potuluri Veera Brahmendraswamy reservoir to the north of Sri Lankamaleswara that forced villagers to move closer to the northern boundary. Many of them set up plantations near the sanctuaries that focused on growing lemons, bitter lime, sweet lime, and key lime. These crops were targeted specifically for their ability to survive with less water and their lucrative value. 198 hectares of scrub habitat was cleared for lemon farms alone. To a lesser extent, plantations centered around paddy, sunflower, cotton, groundnut, finger millet, Turmerie, and onions were also found. Other displaced villagers turned towards cattle grazing with many of raising goats, sheep, and buffalo that graze regularly within scrub habitat in and near the sanctuaries. 14 villages with a lot of cattle live within 2 km of the eastern and northern boundaries of Sri Lankamaleswara. The total livestock in Andhra Pradesh where the two wildlife sanctuaries are located went from 36 million to 48 million between the years 1999-2003. The number of villages with a large amount of cattle has only increased in recent years. What is even more concerning is the fact that the largest livestock population is near Reddipali where the Jerdon's Courser was rediscovered.

To some extent, woodcutting and bird trapping were also seen in the sanctuaries. The main target of bird trappers were the Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus) and quail. Even though Jerdon's Courser not the main target, Jeganathan et al., believe its possible that some members of this species may have been caught accidentally in nooses and nets used by these trappers. The idea is not far-fetched since the Jerdon's Courser was rediscovered in 1986 by a trapper. Due to the bird's popularity across the world as a critically endangered species, it is also possible that bird trappers would not set Jerdon's Coursers free if they did find them due to the opportunities for financial gain for selling them in the black market.

Jeganathan et al. (2008) conclude that, "intense human use, over-grazing and increasing number of settlements will surely have a gradual negative impact on the scrub jungle habitat." The fact that only 15% of the total land in Sri Lankamaleswara is scrub jungle is concerning. It is also ironic given the fact that this sanctuary was created specifically for the Jerdon's Courser. Although, it must be said, that many endemic species within the sanctuary have benefited from government protection.

Due to increasing pressure from climate change and floods from the Sagileru River caused by the Telugu-Ganga dam, increasing the height of the Somasila dam, and the onset of more floods in the Somasila and SPVB reservoirs areas in recent years has displaced even more villages towards the wildlife sanctuaries; putting even more pressure on the scrub habitat needed to sustain a population of Jerdon's Coursers.  

The Telugu-Ganga Canal

The construction of the Telugu-Ganga canal became the center of an epic clash between conservationists, government officials, settlers, capitalists, and other groups during the 2000s. After being delayed at the end of the twentieth century for various reasons, construction was restarted during the 2000s. The goal of the canal was to irrigate lands in the Sagileru Valley by bringing waters from the Krishna River from the Srisailam reservoir through open canals (Right and Left Canal) and other reservoirs (such as the Sri Potulari Veera Brahmamendraswamy reservoir) to the Somaila reservoir in the Pennar Valley. From Somasila, the water would be taken through a 45-km-long canal in order to deliver 12,000 cubic meters of water to Tamilnadu for the purposes of increasing the water supply to Chennai (India Together). In October 2005, excavating machinery was being used to clear scrub jungle suitable for Jerdon's Courser near the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary where the Right Canal was being excavated. It took the intervention of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department (APFD) to halt operations on October 23, 2005. The Left Canal was being built at the same time on the border with the Sri Penusula Narasimha Wildlife Sanctuary. By the time officials knew what was happening, hectares of forest and forest cairns were already cleared to make way for roads within the Muthukur Forest Block of the Kadapa Forest Division near the sanctuary. Construction on the Left Canal stopped on October 25, 2005 when the Divisional Forest Officer in Kadapa arrested several members of the operation who were building the canal without a permit from the APFD.

By the time officials halted construction of the Telugu-Ganga canal and its affiliates, the damage had already been done. Many hectares of forest in the Yerraballi Forest Block near the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. Within this area, a site where a Jerdon's Courser was seen in 2001 was completely destroyed. In the eastern part of Sri Lankamaleswara, experts found 3,600 hectares of suitable scrub jungle habitat that could support a population of Jerdon's Coursers with the site near Reddipali where the species was rediscovered comprising less than 100 hectares of this total. Most of this area was outside the limits of the sanctuary and extended 1-2 km to include agricultural areas and forested hills with the Yerrabali Forest Block containing 443 hectares of the total. As a result of the canal, 114 hectares were destroyed. The total area that was cleared for the Left Canal near the Sri Penusula Narasimha Wildlife Sanctuary was 163 hectares. Of this total, 8 hectares of suitable habitat was destroyed in the Muthukur Forest Block in the Turupukonda Foothills in the Kadapa Forest Division. Without government intervention, the canal would have come within 500 m of known Jerdon's Courser sites and would have destroyed 50 hectares of suitable habitat. The main threats the canal posed to Jerdon's Courser consisted of destroying of the necessary scrub jungle habitat preferred by the species in the eastern part of the Sri Lankamaleswara and western part of the Sri Penusula Narasimha wildlife sanctuaries, fomenting the expansion of irrigated agriculture in areas outside the sanctuaries where a large amount of scrub habitat was already cleared for lemon farms, and facilitating further human activities in known sites where Jerdon's Courser were seen; sites where grazing and woodcutting were already being seen and being pressured by a growth in the local population (Jeganathan and Rahmani, 2005).

In 2006, the Indian government's Central Empowerment Committee ruled in favor of another route that avoided destroying the shrublands and scrub habitats beloved by Jerdon's Courser. In 2008, this plan was approved by the Indian Supreme Court which approved a new route for the canal to be built away from the Jerdon's Courser's known habitat. Since then, 1,200 hectares of land have been given in compensation to expand the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary (IUCN Red List). Experts recommended that a management plan be implemented by the APFD in order to control grazing and woodcutting and halt hunting in the area and that areas that were cleared around the Yerraballi and Muthukur forest blocks should refrain from agricultural practices due to the chance of human encroachment in habitats suitable to Jerdon's Courser. On paper, these recommendations were accepted by government officials but it is unclear how well these practices and areas are being monitored, especially during a time when population growth and political unrest is causing an increase in human encroachment in the remaining scrub habitats where Jerdon's Coursers could still reside (Jeganathan and Rahmani, 2005).

Inside the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, the building of check dams, roads, trenches, and exotic plantations have led to further habitat loss of essential scrub jungle for the Jerdon's Courser. To make matters worse, settlements have intensified near the sanctuary leading to an increase in bird trapping. Despite government supervision, grazing and woodcutting could further reduce the fragile density of bushes Jerdon's Courser need in their habitat. Furthermore, the Telugu-Ganga canal, even though it was diverted from the habitat where the Jerdon's Courser was seen, might restrict access to the scrub jungle and result in a higher density of bushes than is preferred by members of this species (Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, 2010).

The rediscovery of this species led to the creation of two large wildlife sanctuaries in the center of India practically overnight and caused a major infrastructure project to be diverted and delayed with the Telugu-Ganga canal. Despite the habitat loss that this species has endured and the fact that it has not been seen in more than 15 years, one cannot deny the effect this bird's plight has had in galvanizing conservationists in India.

Experts, such as Mahesh (2023), have noted that the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary is known to have annual periods of harsh weather that have been getting worse with each passing year due to climate change. This is because the sanctuary lies within Kadapa, a district in Andhra Pradesh that is known to be one of the most vulnerable to drought (Jeganathan et al., 2008) Droughts can occur between the months of March to July where there is little rain and temperatures can rise above 45 degrees Celsius (Mahesh, 2023).

This extreme heat evaporates water and may force Jerdon's Courser to seek scrub habitats away from Sri Lankamaleswara in search of food. Perhaps conservationists, researchers, and government officials have been focusing too much on Sri Lankamaleswara and should be looking at the areas where unconfirmed sightings were recorded of Jerdon's Courser in the 1990s and 2000s. It is possible that Jerdon's Courser populations could be migrating to various scrub habitats throughout India at various times of the year depending on the weather.

Researchers, such as P. Jeganathan (2008), have themselves admitted that there are still vast areas of scrub habitat outside the Sri Lankamaleswara and Sri Penusula Namasimha wildlife sanctuaries that have yet to be explored and protected. More research needs to be done with regard to what scrub habitat exists outside of the Kadapa district in India, if Jerdon's Coursers could possibly be living in these areas, and what can be done to prevent these habitats from being destroyed due to the immense and rising pressure coming from factors such as climate change, population growth, displacement due to floods, intensive agriculture, and increased human activity due to the Telugu-Ganga dam, woodcutting, cattle grazing, and bird trapping; factors that only make the Jerdon's Courser's plight even more desperate and uncertain with each passing year.

Since the 2000s, the local Yanaadi community have been employed by government officials, researchers, and conservationists to help find and protect Jerdon's Courser. Members of this community feel called to help defend the bird whose rediscovery played a direct role in creating the Sri Lankamaleswara and Sri Penusula Narasimha wildlife sanctuaries in the Lankamalai, Velikonda, and Palakonda hill ranges.

There is an active conservation plan designed for Jerdon's Courser that has been currently in effect since 2010. It is enforced by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department in conjunction with other organizations and local actors. The plan seeks to use tracking strips, camera traps, tape transects, radio-tagging, mapping other scrub jungle using satellite imagery, and training courses for locals by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department to help protect Jerdon's Courser and the scrub jungle and shrubland habitats that this species depends on. The plan calls for the importance of light grazing and woodcutting that can maintain the delicate density of bushes needed to sustain a population of Jerdon's Coursers. This can be done through controlled access to the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary but it unclear how this access is being regulated.

To facilitate local participation, Kaluvi Kodi Conservation Committees (KCCs) were created. Kaluvi Kodi is the word used to describe Jerdon's Courser in Telugu. These committees are currently involved in surveys, in protecting and restoring the habitat of native shrubs and trees important to the Jerdon's Courser primarily in Sri Lankamaleswara from activities such as bird trapping, hunting, and the construction of check dams. They participate in the monitoring the density of large bushes in scrub jungle habitats in the sanctuary at intervals of no more than 5 years. They even are involved in locating new sites where live footage may still be found of Jerdon's Courser (Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, 2010).

In 2013 and 2015, 200 Reconyx passively-triggered cameras with infrared flash were deployed in conjunction with nine surveys in the scrub forest of Sri Lankamaleswara. All of this was funded by the Indian government. In total, 107,000 images of 46 species of birds were taken but no Jerdon’s Coursers were found. Since then, many birdwatchers have travelled to Sri Lankamaleswara but none of them have been able to find the elusive Jerdon’s Courser (Rahmani, 2023). 

Between October 2019 and March 2020, a digital call was played on a FoxPro Predator speaker at several locations in Sri Lankamaleswara with responses recorded within 600 m of each location. Jerdon's Courser calls were heard but they were mixed in with other species. This suggests that there still exists a population of Jerdon's Courser within the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary (Mahesh, 2023).

The Wildlife Conservation Trust (as well as other organizations such as the Nature Conservation Foundation) recently funded a project led by Chiti Arvind that sought to use Automated Recording Units (ARUs) to create an ARU detection framework. This framework used acoustic monitoring to record all calls from sites where Jerdon's Coursers were seen or heard within the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. By using the only known recordings (11 in total) of the Jerdon's Courser taken by P. Jeganathan and Simon Wooton between June 2001-November 2002, Arvind and her team deployed 17 recorders within a grid framework with 1 x 1 km cells along the eastern border of the sanctuary. Each recorder was placed at the center of a grid cell and all cells were within the locations where a Jerdon’s Courser was recorded. These recorders ran for four recording cycles that were 30 days each in a time period that lasted from November 2019-March 2020. Arvind and her colleagues conducted their study during this time because it was believed that Jerdon’s Coursers were the most vocal during these five months. Since the Jerdon’s Courser is known to vocalize within an hour after sunset, the recorders were set to record continuously between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. Arvind and her team collected 24,432 hours of data and analyzed it using recognizers created by Raven Pro and Kaleidoscope software to distinguish the calls of the Jerdon’s Coursers from other endemic species. They noted a mysterious call that they first believed was a Jerdon's Courser but turned out to be a Bay-Backed Shrike (Lanius vittatus) mimicking the bird's call. They concluded that none of the calls recorded matched that of the Jerdon's Courser. However, they did demonstrate how using bioacoustics to create a detection framework made up of Rugged Swift recorders, a grid size of 1 x 1 km, and recognizers using Raven Pro and Kaleidoscope can help in future efforts to help protect the Jerdon’s Courser (Arvind et al., 2022).  

In the end, Arvind and her team did not find the Jerdon's Courser. Nonetheless, it begs the question: how could the Bay-Backed Shrike recorded know how to mimic a Jerdon's Courser if this bird did not hear one in the first place? Could it be that a population of Jerdon's Coursers still exists in Sri Lankamaleswara? Otherwise, how could this shrike know how to mimic a Jerdon's Courser? This has given Arvind and others a little hope that the Jerdon's Courser is still out there somewhere in the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary. 

In 2022, government officials in Andhra Pradesh dedicated Rs 50 lakh to install more enhanced CCTV cameras and sound recorders to track the Jerdon’s Courser (New India Express).

Some academics from the University of Cambridge are planning to use a voice box with a photograph to help build awareness for the Jerdon's Courser among local populations that live near sites where the species was spotted (Madras Courier).

A recent survey was conducted in unexplored areas of the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary in July 2023. No traces of Jerdon's Courser were found (Mahesh 2023).

As of now, tracking strips and camera trips are active and continually being monitored in India. They are being used in conjunction with nighttime listening surveys and with local villages. Particular areas of interests in terms of exploration are the Godavari Valley, north Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu (IUCN Red List). So far, there have been no sightings of Jerdon's Courser since 2009.

Order: Charadriiformes

Family: Glareolidae

Genus: Rhinoptilus

Species: Rhinoptilus bitorquatus