Altai Falcon
Encyclopedia
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of the Saker falcon
Saker Falcon
The Saker Falcon is a very large falcon. This species breeds from eastern Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China...
(Falco cherrug).
It breeds in relatively small area in Central Asia across the Altai and Sayan Mountains
Sayan Mountains
The Sayan Mountains are a mountain range between northwestern Mongolia and southern Siberia, Russia.The Eastern Sayan extends from the Yenisei River at 92° E to the southwest end of Lake Baikal at 106° E...
. This area overlaps with the much larger breeding area of the Saker falcon
Saker Falcon
The Saker Falcon is a very large falcon. This species breeds from eastern Europe eastwards across Asia to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China...
(Falco cherrug). It appears that Altai falcons are either natural hybrids between Sakers and Gyrfalcon
Gyrfalcon
The Gyrfalcon — Falco rusticolus — is the largest of the falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and the islands of North America, Europe, and Asia. It is mainly resident there also, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter.Individual vagrancy...
s (Falco rusticolus), or rather the descendants of such rare hybrids back-crossing into the large population of Sakers. Current molecular genetic studies could not yet prove or falsify this hypothesis. Gyrfalcon is a rare winter vagrant in this area. The high altitude cold grasslands of this region is an intermediate habitat between the typical saker habitat (temperate lowland steppes) and the typical gyrfalcon habitat (arctic tundra). These two species of falcons also easily hybridize in captive breeds.
Thus the Altai falcon is tentatively considered to be a Saker subspecies Falco cherrug altaicus. It tends to be larger than typical Sakers and has red-backed, brownish and greyish colour varieties.
It used to have a high reputation among Central-Asian falconers
Falconry
Falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...
. This is the reason why some speculate that the Hungarians' mythical turul
Turul
The Turul is the most important bird in the origin myth of the Magyars .It is a divine messenger, and perches on top of the tree of life along with the other spirits of unborn children in the form of birds...
might have been identical with the Altai falcon.
Literature
- Almásy GyGyörgy AlmásyGyörgy Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós was a Hungarian Asiologist, traveler, zoologist and ethnographer. His son, László Almásy, was an aviator, Afrologist and soldier....
1903. Vándor-utam Ázsia szívébe. (My Travels to the Heart of Asia – in Hungarian) Budapest, Természettudományi Könyvkiadó-vállalat. - Eastham CP, Nicholls MK, Fox NC 2002. Morphological variation of the saker (Falco cherrug) and the implications for conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation, 11, 305-325.
- Ellis DH 1995. What is Falco altaicus Menzbier? Journal of Raptor Research, 29, 15-25.
- Menzbier MA 1891. (1888–1893). Ornithologie du Turkestan et des pays adjacents (Partie No. -O. de la Mongolie, steppes Kirghiz, contree Aralo-Caspienne, partie superieure du bassin d'Oxus, Pamir). Vol. 12. Publiee par l'Auteur, Moscow, Russia.
- Nittinger F, Gamauf A, Pinsker W, Wink M, Haring E 2007. Phylogeography and population structure of the saker falcon (Falco cherrug) and the influence of hybridization: mitochondrial and microsatellite data. Molecular Ecology, 16, 1497–1517.
- Orta J 1994. 57. Saker Falcon. In: del Hoyo J, Elliott A, Sargatal J (eds.): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 2: New World Vultures to Guineafowl: 273-274, plate 28. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-15-6
- Potapov E, Sale R 2005. The Gyrfalcon. Poyser Species Monographs. A & C Black Publishers, London.
- Sushkin PP 1938. Birds of the Soviet Altai and adjacent parts of north-western Mongolia. Vol. 1. [In Russian.] Academy of Science of USSR Press, Moscow, Russia.