Santa Cruz ground dove (Pampusana sanctaecrucis)
A mysterious island ground dove once feared extinct, now surviving thanks to carefully managed conservation breeding programs.
Context
A breeding group observed in one of the big walk-in aviaries of Mandai Bird Paradise in Singapore.
Field notes
Mandai Bird Paradise and the nearby Singapore Zoo are the world’s only public holders for this endangered species. They have been highly successful in breeding the species and are collaborating with a conservation program based in Solomon Islands.
The Santa Cruz ground dove is one of the least known pigeons in the world. For decades, very little information was available about its ecology, behavior, or population size because of its remote distribution and secretive habits.
Individuals maintained under human care have provided valuable opportunities to study aspects of the species’ biology that would otherwise remain unknown.
Key facts
The Santa Cruz ground dove is endemic to the Santa Cruz Islands, a small and isolated island group belonging to the Solomon Islands. It can also be found on Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu.
Males are easily recognized with their whitish breast and face (washed with pink and grey). The rest of their plumage is brown with an iridescent purple wing patch. Females are tawny chestnut with darker wings and back.
As its name suggests, the Santa Cruz ground-dove lives mostly on the ground and feeds on fallen fruits, seeds, and small invertebrates collected from the forest floor beneath dense tropical vegetation.
Conservation
The species is currently listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and has one of the smallest distributions of any Pacific pigeon.
It belongs to the genus Pampusana, a group of ground doves distributed throughout the Pacific region. Many members of this genus have suffered severe declines or extinction following the arrival of invasive predators on oceanic islands.
A volcanic eruption nearly wiped out the population on Tinakula Island, one of the species’ last strongholds. Since then, remaining specimens have been closely monitored and some are now kept under human care, on Solomon Islands and in Singapore. There, the species is managed through a coordinated conservation breeding program designed to safeguard its future.
More photos from this observation
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