Tokos

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Tokos
Jackson toko (Tockus jacksoni), Kenya

Jackson toko ( Tockus jacksoni ), Kenya

Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Hornbills and hops (Bucerotiformes)
Family : Hornbills (Bucerotidae)
Genre : Tokos
Scientific name
Tockus
Lesson , 1830
Gray token
Close up of a southern yellow-billed coconut
Ceiling toko flying up
Crown Toko
Gray Toko, male
Eastern Yellow-billed Toko, Kenya
Blanket Toko, female

The species of the genus Tokos ( Tockus ) are referred to as Tokos in German . The genus Tockus includes 15 species. They represent the largest genus group within the hornbill family. The distribution area of ​​these species is Africa, the gray toco also occurs on the Arabian Peninsula.

Features and way of life

Tokos are small to medium-sized hornbills. It is characteristic that only the skin around the eye and a small area on the base of the throat are feathered. In most species of this genus, the horn typical of the rhinoceros bird is reduced to an inconspicuous beak ridge.

Reproduction

Tokos are monogamous birds and only one species is likely to have cooperative breeding.

Tokos nest in tree hollows or crevices in the rock. As is typical for many hornbills, the female blocks the entrance up to a small gap. She mainly uses her own droppings, leftover food and fruit pulp for this. Clay is only used in some species. The clutch usually consists of three to five eggs. An exception is the Jackson toko , whose clutch only contains three eggs in exceptional cases, but usually only consists of two eggs. The female moults in the breeding cave and is sometimes even incapable of flight in some smaller species. Non-breeding females, on the other hand, moult in such a way that they retain their ability to fly; breeding females leave the brood cavity before the nestlings have fledged. The nestlings then wall up the brood cavity again except for a narrow gap.

habitat

Except for the dwarf toko ( Tockus camurus ), which prefers moist swamp areas, the species are bush land, savanna and forest dwellers. The Monteiro Toko , which only lives in a small area in Namibia and Angola, is also found in semi-deserts and of all Tokos it inhabits the habitat with the least rainfall. It also uses crevices in the rock as a breeding cave, which are common in its habitat.

species

Originally five subspecies were assigned to the red beaked Toko, to which all species status is now granted.

Tokos and humans

Dedication names

A number of the tokos have specific epithetons that recall the achievements of certain people:

  • The blanket toko ( Tockus blanket ) was named after the German researcher Baron Karl Klaus von der blanket (1833–1865). Von derdeck was an African explorer who got into a fight with angry Somali during his last expedition to Somalia , whereby von derdecke and many participants of his expedition lost their lives.
  • The specific epithet bradfieldi of the rock tokos ( Tockus bradfieldi ) honors the South African couple RD and M. Bradfield. RD Bradfield (1882–1949) worked in Namibia not only as a farmer, but also as a collector and scientist. The South African ornithologist Austin Roberts , who first described the species, named this Toko after the couple because they found the specimen copy near their farm on Waterberg and sent it to him in the Transvaal Museum .
  • With the subspecies Tockus pallidirostris neumanni of the pale-billed coconut, the first describer Reichenow honored the German ornithologist and Africa traveler Oscar Neumann , who described numerous bird species on this continent on two long trips to Africa.
  • The name Monteiro-Toko honors the Portuguese Joachim João Monteiro (1833–1878). Monteiro was a mining engineer, who at the same time collected specimens of the fauna and flora there during his stay in Angola from 1860 to 1875.
  • The Jackson Toko is named in honor of Frederick John Jackson (1859–1929), a British administrative employee of the Imperial British East Africa Company , who later became a colonial official, explorer and scientist. Jackson explored the East African coast in what is now Kenya between 1884 and 1888. This was followed by a joint research trip with Arthur Henry Neumann on behalf of the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1889 to the region between Mombasa and Lake Victoria , which at the time was largely undeveloped. As a colonial administrator he administered the British East African Protectorate from 1907 to 1911 and Uganda from 1911 to 1917. Jackson had been a member of the British Ornithologists' Union since 1888 and brought back numerous specimen copies from his travels and published repeatedly in the ornithological journal Ibis . At the time of his death he was working on a work on the avifauna of East Africa.
  • The Hemprich Toko bears its name in honor of the Prussian naturalist Friedrich Wilhelm Hemprich . Hemprich was friends with the naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and in 1820/21 both were invited by Martin Lichtenstein on an expedition to Egypt , which they were supposed to support as naturalists. On a second expedition from 1821 to 1825, they traveled south along the Nile , crossed the Sinai desert and Lebanon, and traveled the Red Sea . On the way they collected natural history samples. Hemprich died of a fever in the port of Massawa .

attitude

Tokos are successfully kept and also bred in zoological gardens. Some of them can reach a considerable age in captivity. 20 years are occupied for the gray token, 18 years for the red beaked token and 22 years for the magpie and the southern yellow beaked token.

literature

Web links

Commons : Tokos ( Tockus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Single receipts

  1. ↑ W. Grummt, H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds . P. 537
  2. ↑ Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. P. 109.
  3. ↑ Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. P. 144.
  4. ↑ Pagel, Marcordes: Exotic soft-eaters. P. 82.
  5. ↑ Species description in The Atlas of Southern African Birds ., Accessed on October 3, 2016
  6. ^ Josep del Hoyo et al. (Ed.): Handbook of the Birds of the World . 1st edition. tape 6 . Lynx Edicion, Barcelona, ISBN 84-87334-30-X , p. 493 .
  7. ↑ Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins: Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds . Christopher Helm, London 2003, ISBN 0-7136-6647-1 , pp. 205 .
  8. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung München, supplement from Oct. 8. 1865 p. 4561 - Vienna Oct. 2. - Mrs. v. the Decken's expedition to East Africa
  9. ↑ Grummt, H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds. P. 548.