© 2004 Bruce A. Bartrug....Science Art-Birds
Title: Double-banded Courser (Rhinoptilus africanus)
Artist: Bruce A. Bartrug
Image size: 9" x 12 "
Media: Watercolor
Date: 2004
Artist's collection
The artist notes: "Coursers are elegant Charadriiforms, and I'd love to paint every one of them. The Double-banded is the first African courser I encountered when in Namibia in 2003."
"The Double-banded Courser inhabits arid and semi-arid regions of southern Africa, and similar habitats in Ethiopia and northern Somalia. The effects of global warming might allow this courser to extend its range throughout southern Africa and much of eastern Africa as well. This would be a boon to the Double-banded, but the climate change allowing this expansion would deleteriously affect an unknowable number of species of animals and plants, many of which could become extinct. In anticipation of the effects of global warming botanical societies in southern Africa are studying ways of preserving the rich diversity of plant life in such areas as the Karoo and Fynbos, by means of seed banks and/or ex-situ propagation in botanical gardens. Birds and animals that cannot withdraw to wetter areas in central Africa may be lost."
