Gypaetus leucocephalus

[RSN]

I´ve found in a book a extinct species of the genus Gypaetus (Lammergeier) called in portuguese ''Abutre-das-alturas'' (could be translated as ''vulture of the heights'' ; {for me the correct is ''vulture of highlands''}). Looking the picture of the book is possible see cleary it is related to lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus). The text of the pic is:



Vulture-of-the-heights(Gypaetus leucocephalus): Italy. Extinct in 1923. hunted for being considered a noxious animal.

I searched about this, and the only Gypaetus species I´ve found is the G. barbatus, and leucocephalus the bald-eagle, the closest relative with this name. I dont found any thing that make this a subspecies of G. barbatus. Someone know if this is a true species (the books is a encuclopedya of General Biology and Ecology from 1985).

[Melanie]

I think this subspecies is now invalid and it was only a local extirpation of Gypaetus barbatus.

[RSN]

Hmmm...a extinct population, not species or subspecies, right?

It really looks identic to Gypaetus barbatus:







The current reconized subspecies of Gypaetus barbatus are:
G. b. altaicus
G. b. aureus
G. b. barbatus
G. b. haemachalanus
G. b. meridionalis

[Melanie]

rsn said:

Hmmm...a extinct population, not species or subspecies, right?

Yes, because the bearded vulture had a much wider range in the past then today.

By the way. Sibley and Monroe made a taxonomic revision of all bird species in 1990 and a lot of old latin names were no more used.

[another specialist]

I agree with Melanie it's just an extinct population only

[dysmorodrepanis]

Tis is still odd:

The current reconized subspecies of Gypaetus barbatus are:
G. b. altaicus - Hindukush to Nepal, if hemalachnus accepted as valid
G. b. aureus - Spain, formerly also Sardinia
G. b. barbatus - Atlas Mountains, North Africa, and east via Greece and Turkey to Afghanistan
G. b. haemachalanus - Pamir, Himalaya, possibly invalid (clinal size variation)
G. b. meridionalis - Eastern Africa from Sudan on south; also Arabia
(according to Birds of the Western Palearctic)

The extinctAlps/Italian/Balkans population is not listed here. So "G. b. leucocephalus" might possibly be the name if it is considered distinct. It is unclear what the extant Greek birds are. The remaining European populations (except Spain, Sardinia and Greece) were extinct by the late 1950s, if not earlier.

Somebody might check Peters' "Checklist". HBW only recognizes meridionalis and barbatus, but that volume was written before the current trend towards splitting really began. If I remember, I will try and check out the Peters checklist.