Animalia Life

Chlamydotis undulata
TAXONOMY
Psophia undulata Jacquin, 1784. Three subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Ruffed bustard; French: Outarde houbara; German: Kragentrappe; Spanish: Avutarda Hubara.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Male: 25.5–29.5 in (65–75 cm), 4–7 lb (1.8–3.2 kg); female: 21.5–25.5 in (55–65 cm), 2.7–3.8 lb (1.2–1.7 kg). Buff crown with white erectile feathers along center. Pale grayish buff head and neck with black erectile plumes down side of neck to breast. Back pale sandy buff, mottled and lined with darker brown. Female has reduced neck plumes, otherwise similar.
DISTRIBUTION
C. u. fuertaventurae: eastern Canary islands; C. u. undulata: Morocco to north central Egypt (not eastern Nile Valley or Sinai).
HABITAT
Arid semidesert with tussock grass, sandy grassland, and stony plains with scattered low shrubs; regularly on cultivation in nonbreeding season.
BEHAVIOR
Essentially solitary and nonmigratory (but locally nomadic). Males display in breeding season; no pair bonds.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Vegetable matter, insects, and small reptiles.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Main breeding season March and April. Clutch usually 2–3 eggs, laid in bare scrape and incubated for 24–28 days by female; fledging period about 35 days.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Expanded species (including macqueenii) considered Near Threatened. Although undulata is less severely hunted than its Asiatic cousin, numbers are probably much lower overall, and hunting pressure increasing. Population of race fuertaventurae: about 700 individuals.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Favored quarry of Arab dignitaries who hunt with falcons and guns.

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