MINDORO — The rediscovery of the critically endangered Mindoro bleeding-heart has raised fresh concerns over the condition of its traditional lowland habitat after the rare bird was documented at more than 900 meters above sea level.

The Center for Conservation Innovation Ph Inc. (CCIPH) said the camera-trap photograph confirms that the species continues to survive in the wild, but its high-elevation location may also signal changes in its original habitat.

“Finding a historically lowland species above 900 meters raises important questions about what has happened to its original habitat,” CCIPH said in response to a DAILY TRIBUNE media inquiry.

The Mindoro bleeding-heart (Gallicolumba platenae), a ground-dwelling pigeon found only on Mindoro, was photographed by a camera trap in August, marking its first confirmed photograph in about two decades.

CCIPH said the species has historically been considered a lowland forest specialist, usually recorded at around 400 meters and occasionally reaching about 800 meters.

Previous studies suggested that suitable habitat for the bird may now be concentrated at higher elevations as lowland forests decline and become fragmented.

Agriculture, settlements, quarrying, timber extraction, roads and other forms of land conversion have altered Mindoro’s forest landscape, leaving once-continuous lowland forests increasingly divided into isolated patches.

The group cautioned, however, that a single camera-trap record is insufficient to establish the species’ current range or determine the size and condition of its remaining population.

The August documentation resulted from an Indigenous-led conservation effort within the Iraya Mangyan ancestral domain under the Mindoro Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Programme. Iraya Mangyan forest patrollers worked with CCIPH researchers to deploy camera traps and monitor areas where the species could still survive.

The last confirmed record before the latest documentation was in 2005, when an individual was caught in a snare intended for red junglefowl.