• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Gallinula nesiotis and G. comeri (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as G. nesiotis following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993) and Groenenburg et al. (2008, 2009), and before that had been treated as separate species by Collar and Stuart (1985).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	D2

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Vulnerable	D2
2016	Vulnerable	D2
2014	Vulnerable	D2
2012	Not Recognised
2010	Not Recognised
2008	Vulnerable	D2
2006	Vulnerable
2004	Vulnerable
2000	Vulnerable
1996	Vulnerable
1994	Vulnerable
1988	Threatened

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	70 km2	good
Number of locations	1	-
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	8500 mature individuals	good	estimated	1984
Population trend	stable	poor	suspected	-
Generation length	3.5 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	1	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: The total population for G. comeri is estimated at 8,500 mature individuals based on 4,250 pairs on Gough during a 1983 survey (Richardson 1984). This is roughly equivalent to 13,000 individuals in total. There were an additional 2,000 pairs on Tristan in c.2017 (Dagleish et al. 2017), however the population on Tristan is introduced, and thus is not countable under IUCN Red List guidelines.

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines.
In 1984, the introduced Tristan population was estimated at c.250 pairs and increasing. It is now distributed throughout the island (P. G. Ryan in litt. 2000), and in 2017, the population on Tristan was estimated to be 2,000 pairs.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
St Helena (to UK)	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
St Helena (to UK)	Gough Island
St Helena (to UK)	Tristan Island

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Grassland	Subantarctic	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subantarctic	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Freshwater Marshes/Pools (under 8ha)	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Seasonal/Intermittent Freshwater Marshes/Pools (under 8ha)	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 900 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Unlikely to Return		Majority (50-90%)		Rapid Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Felis catus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Unlikely to Return		Majority (50-90%)		Rapid Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Rattus rattus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Future		Majority (50-90%)		Rapid Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Sus domesticus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Unlikely to Return		Majority (50-90%)		Rapid Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Gough Island Moorhen Gallinula comeri. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/gough-island-moorhen-gallinula-comeri on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.