Snoring Rail

Its inaccessible habitat and sparse distribution means that little is known about this species. A few birds were shot by Platen and another expedition led by Paul Sarasin and his second cousin, Fritz, between 1893 and 1898, but the rail was then not seen for more than thirty years until Heinrich found it almost at the end of a two-year survey of Sulawesi, then known as Celebes. He described it as "the most priceless catch that I have ever hunted or will hunt". More than a decade later, Dutch ornithologist Louis Coomans de Ruiter also took a year to find the rail, despite concentrating on known suitable habitat. There were then no documented sightings until birds were observed in 1983 and 1989. Sight records remain infrequent, and only about ten specimen corpses have been studied. The snoring rail catches crabs in highland streams, and these crustaceans may be a major dietary item. It also forages in muddy areas, and has been recorded as consuming lizards. Nothing is known of its breeding behaviour other than a report of an adult seen feeding with two chicks in August 1983, but the original report gives no details of the claimed sighting.

The species is an uncommon Indonesian endemic of lowland and hill forests in northern, north central and southeastern Sulawesi. Another population was found on Buton island in 1995. The typical habitat of this species is dense vegetation in wet areas. This may include impenetrable bamboo and liana in forests, rattan in regrown forests, or elephant grass and bushes on the hillsides of Minahassa Peninsula. Claims of the species occurring in rice fields are believed to be due to confusion with the buff-banded rail. The snoring rail occurs from sea level to 1,300 m (4,300 ft).

The snoring rail is restricted to Sulawesi and Buton and has an estimated population of 3,500–15,000 individuals. Its numbers are thought to be decreasing, and its restricted range and small population mean that the species is classified as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It may always have been thinly spread, but there has been widespread deforestation within its range resulting in loss and fragmentation of suitable habitat. The rail has been protected under Indonesian law since 1972, and the large Lore Lindu and Bogani Nani Wartabone National Parks are within its range, but logging and rattan cutting occurs even in these protected areas, and human encroachment is also a problem at Lore Lindu. The rail has been trapped for food in the past, and is sometimes killed by dogs, cats and other introduced predators. A 2007 survey of protected areas of Sulawesi failed to find the rail, suggesting that it is genuinely rare even in reserves.