Himalayan monal changes its call as people crowd its home

A sharp rise in human activity is changing how a Himalayan bird lives and communicates, according to two studies by Indian researchers. The monal is a pheasant that lives in the mountain forests of the Himalayas and is woven into the region’s culture and folklore. The male has striking green, blue and copper feathers, and the bird is the state bird of India’s Uttarakhand and the national bird of Nepal.

The studies show that road building and tourism are squeezing the bird’s habitat, while growing noise alters how it communicates with mates and rivals. Researchers from Uttarakhand carried out two separate studies over five years. One found that the birds are being pushed higher up the mountains as the alpine meadows above the tree line become crowded. The other found that the monal is changing the pitch of its call to cut through human noise in a busy valley.

Vishal Singh, an environmental practitioner working on ecology and climate in the Himalayas, said the studies are a useful warning for more vulnerable species: if the monal is forced to change both its voice and its address, he asked, how are more sensitive species coping?

Dr Rajeev Lochan, who led both studies, said the team chose the monal because it has a narrow range, moving with the seasons between the lower montane zone on the lower mountain slopes and the high alpine zones.