Table 1. Taxonomy and distribution of ratites (De Mosenthal & Harting 1879; Rothschild 1900; Howard & Moore 1984; Del Hoyo et al. 1992; Romer 1997; Peterson 1999; Robertson 2003; IUCN 2007a; Ostrich 2007)

Species	Subspecies	Named	Region
Struthio camelus	S. c. australis	Gurney, 1868	Southern Africa
	S. c. camelus	Linnaeus, 1758	Ethiopia and East Sudan, Sahel, Senegal and West Mauritania
	S. c. molybdophanes	Reichenow, 1883	Somalia, Ethiopia, and northern Kenya
	S. c. massaicus	Neumann, 1898	Kenya and Tanzania and parts of Southern Somalia
Casuarius casuarius	C. c. casuarius	Linnaeus, 1758	Ceram
	C. c. aruensis	?	Aru Islands
	C. c. johnsoni	Müller, 1866	North Queensland
	C. c. sclateri	Salvadori, 1881	Southern New Guinea
	C. c. bicarunculatus	Sclater, 1860 ?	Western Vogelkop
	C. c. tricarunculatus	?	West Geelvink Bay
	C. c. bistriatus	?	Geelvink Bay to Tana Mera
	C. c. iateralis	?	?
C. unappendiculatus	C. u. unappendiculatus	Blyth, 1860	Salawati and Western Vogelkop
	C. u. occipitalis	Salvadori, 1878?	Japen Island and nearby coast
	C. u. aurantiacus	Rothschild, 1899	Memberano to Sepik River
	C. u. philipi	Rothschild, 1898	Sepik River to Astrolabe Bay
C. bennetti	C. b. benetti	Gould, 1857	?
	C. b. papuanus	Schlegel 1873 ?	Vogelkop
	C. b. goodfellowi	?	Japen Island
	C. b. claudii	?	Nassau Mountains (Southern Slopes)
	C. b. picticollis	Sclater ?	South-east New Guinea
	C. b. hecki	Rothschild, 1899	Huon Peninsula to Sepik River
	C. b. shawnmeyer	?	Kratke Mountains
Dromaius novaehollandiae	D. n. novaehollandiae	Latham, 1790	Central and South Queensland, Victoria and Southern Australia
	D. n. woodwardi	Mathews, 1912	Northwestern and Western Australia and the Northern Territory
	D. n. rothchildi	Mathews, 1912	Southwestern Australia
Rhea americana	R. a. americana	Linnaeus, 1758	Northeastern to southeastern Brazil
	R. a. intermedia	Rothschild & Chubb, 1914	Southeastern Brazil and Uruguay
	R. a. nobilis	Brodkorb, 1939	Eastern Paraguay
	R. a. araneipes	Brodkorb, 1938	Western Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, southwestern Brazil
	R. a. albescens	Lynch & Holmberg, 1878	North eastern and eastern Argentina
Pterocnemia pennata	P. p. pennata	Orbigny, 1834	Southern Chile, western, central and southern Argentina
	P. p. garleppi	Chubb, 1913	Southern Peru, southwestern Bolivia northwestern Argentina
	P. p. tarapacensis	Chubb, 1913	Northern Chile
Apteryx mantelli		Bartlett, 1852	North Island
A. australis		Shaw, 1813	Near Haast, Stewart Island/Rakiura and Fiordland, South Island
A. rowi		Tennyson et al., 2003	Okarito, South Island
A. owenii		Gould, 1847	Kapiti Island and several smaller offshore islands
A. haastii		Potts, 1872	Northern South Island

Table 2. Conservation status of ratites

Species	Common name	IUCN (2007a)
Struthio camelus	Ostrich	Least Concern
Casuarius casuarius	Southern Cassowary	Vulnerable
Casuarius unappendiculatus	Northern Cassowary	Vulnerable
Casuarius bennetti	Dwarf Cassowary	Near Threatened
Dromaius novaehollandiae	Emu	Least Concern
Rhea americana	Greater Rhea	Near Threatened
Pterocnemia pennata	Lesser Rhea	Near Threatened
Apteryx mantelli	Brown Kiwi	Endangered
Apteryx australis	Tokoeka	Vulnerable
Apteryx owenii	Little Spotted Kiwi	Vulnerable
Apteryx haastii	Great Spotted Kiwi	Vulnerable

Table 3. Causes of decline in numbers of ratites

Species	Causes	Reference
Ostriches	Intensive hunting	Brown et al. (1982); Del Hoyo et al. (1992);
	Egg gathering	Thiollay (2006b)
	Habitat destruction due to livestock overgrazing
Cassowary	Habitat loss and fragmentation	Crome & Moore (1990);
	Traffic accidents	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (2001)
	Visitor impacts
	Dogs
	Competition and nest predation by pigs
	Disease
	Traditional unmanaged demand	Johnson et al. (2004)
Emu	Habitat loss and fragmentation	Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW) (2007)
	Deliberate slaughter
	Collisions with vehicles
	Predation of eggs and chicks by foxes, dogs and feral pigs
Rhea	Habitat loss, especially due to sheep overgrazing	Bucher and Nores (1988)
	Egg gathering
	Predation by felids and feral dogs
	Illegal hunting by humans
Kiwi	Predation	Taborsky (1988); McLennan & Potter (1992)

Table 4. Suggestions for conservation of ratites

Species	Suggestion	Reference
Ostrich	Captive breeding and release	Sahara Conservation Fund (2007)
	Genetic improvement
	Public awareness
Cassowary	Habitat restoration	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (2001)
Emu	Habitat maintaining	Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW) (2007)
	Public awareness
	Predator control
Rhea	Habitat maintaining	Bellis et al. (2004)
	Control of poaching
	Captive breeding and release
Kiwi	Predator control	Basse et al. (1999); Pierce & Westbrooke (2003)
	Captive breeding and release	Grant (2001); McLennan et al. (2004);
		Kiwi Captive Management Advisory Committee (2004)
	Establishment of ‘kiwi sanctuaries’	Robertson (2004)
	Public awareness	James (2001)

Table 5. Population estimates of kiwis in New Zealand (Department of Conservation, New Zealand, 2007).

Kiwi	2006
North Island Brown (4 varieties)	25 000
Okarito Brown	250
Haast Tokoeka	300
Southern Tokoeka (3 varieties)	34 500
Little Spotted	1425
Great Spotted	17 000