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

Taxonomic source(s)
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
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.
Turbott, E.G. 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand. Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Wellington.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2022	Near Threatened	A2b+4b
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Near Threatened
1988	Near Threatened

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

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	1,580,000 km2
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	3,810,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	20000-39000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2020
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2016-2028
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	20-29%	-	-	-
Generation length	4.02 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	1	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: In May 2020, an island-wide survey based on counts of displaying males at a stratified sample of sites estimated a population of 20,300 mature individuals on Hokkaido (Ura and Tajiri 2020). An additional 3,400-11,000 mature individuals are estimated to occur on Sakhalin (Hansen et al. 2020a) with much smaller numbers on Honshu. Another estimate, applying a trend correction to previous data, suggested a total population of 35,000 mature individuals (Hansen et al. 2022). To account for these uncertainties, the population is therefore estimated to number 20,000-39,000 mature individuals.

Trend justification: The population was previously suspected to be declining, but not at a rate that exceeded or approached the thresholds for listing as threatened; however, recent data indicate a sudden population reduction in Japan between 2018 and 2020. Based on counts of displaying males at a stratified sample of sites, an estimated 42% reduction (from 35,000 to 20,300 mature individuals) on Hokkaido (where the majority of the world population breeds) occurred between 2018 (Ura et al. 2018) and 2020 (Ura and Tajiri 2020). There is high confidence in the 2018 population size, which was similar to an estimate made in 1986 (Naarding 1986), and in the 2020 survey data, which mirrored the methodology of that in 2018. In total, 116 sites (of the 588 sites surveyed in 2018) on Hokkaido were surveyed in 2020; there was considerable spatial variation in the declines observed at each locality (trend in parentheses): Sarobetsu (-71%), eastern Soya (-27%), Yufutsu Plain (-39%), Tsurui (-90%), and Nemuro (-28%) (Ura and Tajiri 2020). The principal cause of this reduction has been attributed to extreme drought in Australia, where 50-90% (70% best estimate) of the world population winters (Hansen et al. 2020a).  

However, annual monitoring of c.150 sites in Australia up to November 2021 did not reflect these declines (B. Hansen in litt. 2022) despite Hansen et al. (2020a) suggesting Australian drought as a possible hypothesis for the species' sudden decline in Japan. Moreover, in Sakhalin, the number of Latham's Snipe has remained stable; although numbers dropped slightly in 2020, these had recovered by 2021 and the overall trend over the past three generations is thought to have been stable (P. Ktitorov in litt. 2022). Evaluating and weighting these trends, it is precautionarily suspected that the population declined by 20-29% over the past three generations. Given the threat and cause of this is unexplained and there appears to be inconsistencies, it is unclear whether the decline is continuing or likely to occur in the future.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Australia	extant	native			yes
China (mainland)	extant	native			yes
Hong Kong (China)	extant	native			yes
Indonesia	extant	native			yes
Japan	extant	native		yes
Marshall Islands	extant	vagrant
New Zealand	extant	vagrant			yes
Northern Mariana Islands (to USA)	extant	native
Papua New Guinea	extant	native			yes
Russia	extant	native		yes
South Korea	extant	vagrant			yes
Taiwan, China	extant	native			yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Australia	Broad Sound
Australia	Hunter Estuary
Japan	Akan, Kussharo
Japan	Kiritappu marsh, Biwase bay
Japan	Kushiro marsh
Japan	Lake Furen, On-netou
Japan	Lake Tofutsu
Japan	Lake Utonai, Yufutu plain
Japan	Lakes Notoro and Abashiri
Japan	Mount Fuji
Japan	Mounts Azuma and Bandai
Japan	Mounts Kurikoma and Yakiishi
Japan	Notsuke, Odaitou
Japan	Okutadami, Okunikko and Okutone mountains
Russia (Asian)	Kievka and Chernaya river basins

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Aquatic & Marine	Artificial/Aquatic - Seasonally Flooded Agricultural Land	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	non-breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	non-breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	breeding
Altitude	0 - 1400 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Past, Unlikely to Return		Unknown		Rapid Declines		Past Impact
		Stresses Species mortality
Climate change & severe weather	Droughts	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation
Natural system modifications	Fire & fire suppression - Increase in fire frequency/intensity	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Unknown		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation
Residential & commercial development	Commercial & industrial areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Unknown		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Residential & commercial development	Housing & urban areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Unknown		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Latham's Snipe Gallinago hardwickii. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/lathams-snipe-gallinago-hardwickii 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.