Chatham Islands Rail (Cabalus modestus)
Posted on 31 December, 1895 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1895-1900
Comments:
This species was known from the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, but the last known specimen was taken between 1895 and 1900. It is thought that invasive species are responsible, both through direct predation and habitat modification.
Habitat:
It is likely to have occurred in scrubland and tussock grass.
Causes:
Its extinction was presumably caused by predation by rats and cats (which were introduced in the 1890s), habitat destruction to provide sheep pasture (which destroyed all of the island's bush and tussock grass by 1900), and from grazing by goats and rabbits (Marchant and Higgins 1993). On Chatham and Pitt Islands, Olson (1975) has suggested that its extinction resulted from competition with the larger Dieffenbach's Rail Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii (also extinct), but the two species have been shown to have been sympatric on Mangere (Tennyson and Millener 1994).
Distribution:
Cabalus modestus was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, New Zealand. It was first discovered on Mangere in 1871, and 26 specimens collected there are known from museum collections. The last known specimen was taken between 1895 and 1900 (Hume 2017). The species is also known from 19th century bones from Chatham and Pitt Islands.