Tsingy Forest Rail Mentocrex beankaensis Scientific name definitions

c. 30 cm; wing of single adult male 142 mm, distinctly larger than that of M. kioloides. Forehead to nape and lores are dark, dull smoke-grey and dark greyish-brown, slightly mottled in appearance, ear-coverts and foreface from beneath the eye to malar area dark cinnamon-rufous; hindneck and mantle light raw umber with olivaceous tinge, becoming amber-coloured on lower back, scapulars and upperwing-coverts, and more rusty-tinged on rump to uppertail; remiges blackish with white bars on inner webs, plainer and more raw umber on innermost secondaries and tertials; chin and throat off-white, bordered by narrow dark line; foreneck down to breast and upper flanks dark cinnamon-rufous, central belly dark clay-coloured with raw umber or olivaceous tinge, lower flanks and thighs barred or spotted with dark brown, raw umber and light buff; undertail-coverts mixed tawny and cinnamon-rufous with dark bars; underwing-coverts, axillaries and flight-feathers barred blackish and white; iris reddish-chestnut; bill light bluish-grey with pale horn or ivory tip, dusky base of upper mandible; legs blackish. Differs from M. kioloides mainly in larger size, darker general coloration, and less uniform forehead and lores. Sexes probably similar. Juvenile undescribed; downy young has dark brown iris.

Lowland CW Madagascar, including portions of Bemaraha and Beanka Massifs.

Not recorded.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near Threatened. Restricted-range species: present in West Malagasy Dry Forest EBA. Occupies very limited range, probably c. 125 × 5 km, and total population likely to be very small. Most of the Bemaraha Massif falls within protected-areas system and is under conservation management; pressure on pinnacle karst areas is, in general, limited because of difficulty of access and poor soil quality. Activities of oil-prospectors in 1980s, however, facilitated access to some previously impenetrable areas. Although Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve (N end of the massif) and Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park (S end) are legally protected, most of the area is not well patrolled and some habitat loss and degradation thought to be taking place, mainly through shifting cultivation, conversion to grazing pasture, wood-gathering and extraction of other forest resources. Fires are set in the reserve in order to stimulate grass growth (for stock grazing) and to clear trails. This species seems very vulnerable to hunting, which is probably a common activity; in N of its range the pinnacle karst is inhabited by bandits, who catch birds and lemurs for food.