Salvadori's Teal

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iSalvadori's Teal

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Subfamily:	Tadorninae
Genus:	Salvadorina Rothschild & Hartert, 1894
Species:	S. waigiuensis

Binomial name

Salvadorina waigiuensis
Rothschild & Hartert, 1894

The Salvadori's Teal or Salvadori's Duck, Salvadorina waigiuensis, is a species of bird native to New Guinea. It is placed in its own monotypic genus Salvadorina.

Initially, it was believed to belong to the "perching ducks", a paraphyletic assemblage of species which generally fell between dabbling ducks and shelducks. With the breaking-up of the "perching ducks", it was rather provisionally placed in the dabbling duck genus Anas^{[citation needed]}. It was then reinstated in its own genus and moved to the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae^{[citation needed]}, which also contains the Torrent Duck and Blue Duck which convergently have evolved adaptations to mountain stream habitat. All or some of these species may actually be surviving lineages of an ancient Gondwanan radiation of waterfowl (Sraml et al. 1996).

It is a secretive inhabitant of fast-flowing streams and alpine lakes between 500 and 3.700m in the mountains. It is one of only four^{[verification needed]} waterfowl species that are adapted to life on fast-flowing rivers, and the sole endemic duck species of the island of New Guinea. The IUCN has listed the bird as vulnerable, and the total population may be slowly declining.

The name commemorates the Italian naturalist Tommaso Salvadori.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Salvadorina waigiuensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is vulnerable

Beehler, Bruce M., Pratt, Thane K. & Zimmerman, Dale A. (1986): Birds of New Guinea. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. ISBN 0-691-02394-8

Diamond, Jared M. (1972): Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club 12: 1-438.

Kear, J. (1975): Salvadori's Duck of New Guinea. Wildfowl 26: 104-111.

Sraml, M.; Christidis, L.; Easteal, S.; Horn, P. & Collet, C. (1996): Molecular Relationships Within Australasian Waterfowl (Anseriformes). Australian Journal of Zoology 44(1): 47-58. DOI:10.1071/ZO9960047 (HTML abstract)