Elize Y. X. Ng

University of Tasmania · Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology

The characterization of species limits and diversification patterns across the geographically complex Indo-Pacific region has presented biogeographers and evolutionary biologists with great challenges. In the present study, we investigated the brown cuckoo dove (Macropygia amboinensis s.l.) species complex, whose distribution spans this entire regi...

In the last two decades, unsustainable levels of wildlife trade have led to an unprecedented biological crisis. Southeast Asia has become an epicentre for wildlife trade in general and specifically for the cage-bird trade, resulting in numerous regional extinctions. To assess the impact of regional extinction on the loss of genetic diversity in aff...

Morphology has been a leading taxonomic guiding light to systematists for the last couple of hundred years. However, the genetic and – more recently – genomic revolution have produced numerous demonstrations of erroneous classifications that were based on labile morphological traits. We used thousands of genome‐wide markers to shed light on evoluti...

Simple Summary Wildlife crossings are often constructed to enhance genetic connectivity among populations divided by roads (including highways). However, few studies have demonstrated the efficacy of viaducts in counteracting the barrier effects imposed by roads. We measured genetic diversity and divergence in four small mammal species commonly fou...

Wildlife trade is one of the major contributors to biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia, especially in songbirds. Wildlife forensics using genomic data can be instrumental in informing conservation action by identifying trade routes and animals’ provenance to help law enforcement. We obtained ~ 10,000 genome-wide markers spanning a panel of 87 wild,...

Quantifying the magnitude of the global extinction crisis is important but remains challenging, as many extinction events pass unnoticed owing to our limited taxonomic knowledge of the world’s organisms. The increasing rarity of many taxa renders comprehensive sampling difficult, further compounding the problem. Vertebrate lineages such as birds, w...

The ornithological world has 4 global checklists (as of early 2020). While 3 follow the results of peer-reviewed research at varying pace and conservatism, the HBW/BirdLife checklist, which is adopted by the global Red List authority, has implemented Tobias et al.’s (2010) 7-point scoring system to overhaul global ornithological treatment. Critical...

The Straw-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus is one of SouthEast Asia's most threatened songbirds due to relentless demand for the regional cage-bird trade. The species was recently uplisted from 'Endangered' to 'Critically Endangered' only two years after its previous uplisting. Intriguingly, populations in highly urbanised Singapore appear relat...

The Elegant Pitta (Pitta elegans) complex displays a remarkable diversity of morphological and bio-acoustic traits across five taxa currently recognized as subspecies. They differ in plumage characteristics (such as red versus black belly patches; supercilium color and extent; and white versus black throats), in lifestyle (resident versus migratory...

In today's environmental crisis, conservationists are increasingly confronted with terminally endangered species whose last few surviving populations may be affected by allelic introgression from closely related species. Yet there is a worrying lack of evidence-based recommendations and solutions for this emerging problem. We analyzed genome-wide D...

Southeast Asian avifauna is under threat from both habitat loss and illegal poaching, yet the region’s rich biodiversity remains understudied. Here, we uncover cryptic species-level diversity in the Sunda Blue Robin (Myiomela diana), a songbird complex endemic to Javan (subspecies diana) and Sumatran (subspecies sumatrana) mountains. Taxonomic inqu...

The Asian songbird crisis, which is currently unfolding in Southeast Asia, has seen multiple bird taxa go extinct in the wild and even more slip into regional or local extinction over the span of only a few years. The hill mynas Gracula spp. are amongst its main victims, encompassing the Critically Endangered Nias Hill Myna Gracula [religiosa] robu...

Habitat fragmentation is a major extinction driver. Despite dramatically increasing fragmentation across the globe, its specific impacts on population connectivity across species with differing life histories remain difficult to characterize, let alone quantify. Here we investigate patterns of population connectivity in six songbird species from Si...

Intracontinental biotic divisions across the vast Palaearctic region are not well-characterized. Past research has revealed patterns ranging from a lack of population structure to deep divergences along varied lines of separation. Here we compared biogeographic patterns of two Palaearctic shorebirds with different habitat preferences, Whimbrel (Num...

Background The taxonomy of the Collared Owlet ( Glaucidium brodiei ) species complex is confused owing to great individual variation in plumage colouration seemingly unrelated to their distribution. Although generally recognised as a single species, vocal differences among the subspecies have been noted by field recordists. However, there is no stu...

Forest fragmentation as a result of urbanisation can adversely affect gene flow between wildlife populations. Although gene flow among fragmented populations has been investigated for many species, there has been little research into the effects of urbanisation on gene flow in large mammals. Singapore is a small, densely urbanised tropical city-sta...

Leaf warblers (Aves; Phylloscopidae) are a diverse clade of insectivorous, canopy-dwelling songbirds widespread across the Old World. The taxonomy of Australasian leaf warblers is particularly complex, with multiple species-level divergences between island taxa in the region requiring further scrutiny. We use a combination of morphology, bioacousti...