Rhinoceros hornbill country9/16/2023 ![]() ![]() In Thailand, Buceros hornbills have played an important role in the ecological system by acting as large-seed dispersal agents. ![]() The female generally emerges from the nest before the chick fl edges and then helps her mate feed their chicks until they are virtually independent, when their casques begin to develop (Kemp & Poonswad, 1993). In both species, the female hornbill has to trust her mate for his care during imprisoning herself inside the nest tree cavity while laying eggs and brooding the young chicks (Tsuji, 1996). Females are generally expected to choose their potential mates from superior courtship displays, which are similar in both species with duet calling and headraised postures. There is an area of overlap in the ranges of the species in southern Thailand and Myanmar, the northern Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, but the great hornbill extends north to India and southern China and the rhinoceros hornbill south to Java and Borneo (Kemp, 1995). Both species have a mainly black plumage, a white tail with black band across the center and a large casque (Poonswad, 1993a). These are sister species in the order Bucerotiformes, resembling each other in appearance, breeding behaviour and genetics (DNADNA hybridisation and phylogenetic study of cytochrome b) (Kemp, 1995 Viseshakul et al., 2011). In this study, the occurrence of two instances of interspecific mating between pairs of sympatric female great hornbills ( Buceros bicornis) and male rhinoceros hornbills ( Buceros rhinoceros) were discovered in the forests of Budo Mountain, a part of Budo-Sungai Padi National Park, Thailand. ![]() Our results is the fi rst report of hybridisation between the great hornbill and the rhinoceros hornbill in the wild, and has been genetically confirmed. This suggests that the female great hornbill and male rhinoceros hornbill were the true parents of these hybrid chicks, and that the chicks shared the same mother. Three different alleles, specifi c for rhinoceros hornbill, were also detected in the chicks. An investigation of parentage, using 11 microsatellite loci developed from the great hornbill, indicated that the chicks shared at least one allele with the putative mother at all loci. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA in the hypervariable control region III of these two chicks showed similar patterns to those of their mother, the great hornbill. Genetic data confirmed these incidences of hybridisation. Morphological and phenotypic characteristics of the chicks most resemble the great hornbill with a few distinctive features hared between both hornbills. These mated pairs each successfully raised a chick. In 20, two occurrences of mating in the wild between a male rhinoceros hornbill and a female great hornbill were discovered in the forests of Budo Mountain, southern Thailand. ![]() These two species resemble each other in appearance and breeding habits and are sister taxa. rhinoceros) are among the largest Asian hornbill species and they overlap in parts of their ranges. The great hornbill ( Buceros bicornis) and the rhinoceros hornbill ( B. ![]()
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