Mascarene Pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissimus)
Posted on 31 December, 1840 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1840
Comments:
This species was found on Mauritius, but it has been hunted to extinction. The last reports date from 1832 and it is thought to have been Extinct a few years later.
Habitat:
Very little is known, although it evidently inhabited the island's forests, although there is a curious reference provided by Desjardins to it living alone near riverbanks where it fed on fruit and freshwater molluscs.
Causes:
Hunting and habitat loss presumably caused the species's extinction.
Distribution:
Alectroenas nitidissimus is known only from three skins (Cheke 1987) and a number of descriptions and paintings (Tuijn 1969, Cheke 1987), from Mauritius (Cowles 1987). It was first described by Harmansz in 1602, and persisted for more than two centuries thereafter. Milbert, writing in 1812, noted that he ate many in 1801, and Desjardins reported in 1832 that birds were "still found towards the centre of the island in the middle of those fine forests which by their remoteness, have escaped the devestating axe". The last specimen was collected in 1826, however, it seems to have persisted into the early 1830s (Cheke 1987).