Tibetan Snowcock - Taxonomy and Systematics

Taxonomy and Systematics

The widely distributed populations show variations in plumage and about five subspecies have been designated:

• The nominate race described by John Gould in 1854 is distributed across the Pamirs in Tadjikistan, southeast to Western Tibet and Ladakh. It is paler than the other races
• aquilonifer, described by Sushkin in 1926, is found in Central and East Himalayas (Nepal, Sikkim, western Bhutan), is darker and has darker brown tail
• centralis, described by Meinertzhagen in 1926, is sometimes lumped with przewalskii. This race is dark, and less fulvous than aquilonifer. This is found in central Tibet and extends to the Abor and the Mishmi Hills of India.
• przewalskii was described by Bianchi in 1907, is found from North East India to West Central China
• henrici, described by Oustalet in 1891, is found from Eastern Tibet to North West Sichuan.

Some races such as tschimenensis and yunnanensis are not widely recognized, the former included in the nominate form. The genetic divergence of these populations has been attributed to glacial cycles associated with the uplift of the Tibetan plateau.