Sulu Bleeding-heart - Status

Status

The Sulu Bleeding-heart is considered to be Critically Endangered by the IUCN. The Sulu Bleeding-heart has always been considered a rare bird, and only two specimens, both males, have ever been taken of the species. The specimens, collected in October 1891 on the small islet of Tataan, are the last time anyone has definitely seen the Sulu Bleeding-heart alive. The bleeding-heart was searched for for 22 days in December 1971 and briefly in September 1991 without success. Most of Tawi-Tawi's forests were cleared by August 1994, and the Sulu Bleeding-heart may well be extirpated on the mainland. However, an ethnobiological survey in 1995 generated reports that the bleeding-heart survives and is regularly seen on the nearby islets of Tandubatu, Dundangan, and Baliungan. It was also reported that the species was quite common until the 1970s. Despite this, an expedition in 2009 failed to find any signs of the species or discover a new report of the species' continued existence. The islets it reportedly survives on may also be too small to support a viable population. Any surviving population of Sulu Bleeding-hearts is likely to be small, possibly numbering fewer than 50 birds, and would be threatened by continued habitat destruction and uncontrolled hunting. As the Mindanao and Luzon Bleeding-hearts are popular cagebirds, any bleeding-heart found on Tawi-Tawi could also be an escaped bleeding-heart instead of the indigenous Sulu Bleeding-heart. There are no protected areas in the Sulu Archipelago, and other than two environmental education initiatives in the 1990s nothing has been done to protect any surviving population.