Current view: Data table and detailed info
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.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
| Migratory status |
not a migrant |
Forest dependency |
high |
| Land-mass type |
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification: The global population size of this species was estimated by Lammertink et al. (2009) to lie somewhere in the broad range of 26,000 to 550,000 mature individuals, a figure derived from an initial remote-sensing based analysis which yielded an estimate of 260,000-550,000, but with an adjusted lower bound (reduced by 90%) to reflect occupancy and the insensitivities of the land cover data used. If these numbers were accurate for 2005 as proposed, then the suspected population decline of 25-49% (best estimate 35–49%) since 2005 (see Population Trend text) yields an adjusted total in 2023 of 13,260–412,500 (best estimate 13,260–357,500). A bespoke internal analysis using land cover data from 2010 (with totals adjusted for forest loss rates since) and an approximate density of 0.5–5 birds/km2 (reflecting a range of densities recorded by Lammertink et al. [2009] and by Kumar and Shahabuddin [2012]) suggests a similar global population of 12,750–63,750. This alternative total is congruent with the scenarios provided by Lammertink et al. (2009) but suggests that their more pessimistic scenarios were likely more accurate. Accordingly, but reflecting the great uncertainty in the population size of this species, the total is set here to 10,000-70,000 mature individuals.
Trend justification: Few direct population data exist this species, although it has evidently declined, probably rapidly, in response to the large-scale clearance and degradation of its forest habitat through most of its range (Lammertink et al. 2009). Remote sensing data suggest that forest cover in this species' range has reduced by c.16–21% over the past three generations (17 years: 2006–2023) (Global Forest Watch 2023, based on data from Hansen et al. [2013] and methods disclosed therein).
Alone therefore, remote sensing data indicate a rate of population decline much lower than that proposed here. However, there are several reasons to believe that population declines in this species are (perhaps substantially) more rapid than satellite data alone suggest. In some parts of its range (especially Lao PDR, and perhaps locally in Myanmar and Viet Nam), gun and projectile hunting is thought to have contributed to (at least historic) declines (Timmins et al. in press); this species is vocal and easy to locate, rendering it particularly vulnerable to local areas where there is a high propensity to hunt larger-bodied species. Likely more impacting, however, is the threat of selective logging and habitat degradation that is undetectable to unsensitive remote sensing analyses. This species is dependent on old growth forests with large diameter trees for nesting (Lammertink et al. 2009). Selective logging for these trees—an activity that has increased rapidly with increasing access to even formerly remote forest blocks—is considered to be capable of driving declines possibly greater than outright forest loss. Data to evidence this assumption are few (in part because of its low detectability as a threat), however in Lao PDR, repeat surveys from some sites provides 'strong evidence for serious declines in the species' (Timmins et al. in press, and references therein). This threat is believed to occur across a wide area of this species' range, and is particularly pervasive in lowland dipterocarp deciduous forests of southern Indochina, where densities of this species is high in unaltered habitat (eBird 2023) and large areas of suitable habitat are either not formally protected, or ineffectually so.
The minimum rate of global population decline over the past three generations (17 years: 2005-2023) is set at 25%, representing an optimistic scenario where selective logging is not as serious a threat as suggested by Timmins et al. (in press) and/or it is not as reliant on old growth forests as suspected (Lammertink et al. 2009). The upper bound is set to 49%, representing a scenario where a disproportionate of this species' population occurs in areas most impacted by selective logging. There is high confidence that the true rate of decline lies somewhere between these two scenarios, with a best estimate (given the evidence of localised extirpation/density reduction in Lao PDR: Timmins et al. in press) that a pessimistic scenario (declines of 35-49%) is probably more likely. The same rates of decline are also suspected in the future, with selective logging considered a threat so difficult to control (even in protected areas) that there is a high likelihood that such rapid declines will also occur over the next three generations (17 years: 2023-2040). Whether the rapid declines suspected will ever be reversed is unclear: Timmins et al. (in press) suggest that population recoveries may take decades, if not centuries, to occur.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Great Slaty Woodpecker Mulleripicus pulverulentus. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/great-slaty-woodpecker-mulleripicus-pulverulentus 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.
