New Zealand Quail (Coturnix novaezelandiae)
Posted on 31 December, 1875 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1875
Comments:
This species formerly occurred on New Zealand's North, South, and Great Barrier islands, but is now Extinct, probably primarily due to widespread burning of habitat, introduced predators and diseases spread by introduced game birds. A bird that died in 1875 is thought to represent the last individual of the species.
Habitat:
It inhabited open habitats, especially grass-covered downs.
Causes:
Extinction is largely thought to have been caused by large-scale burning, predation by dogs, cats and rats, and grazing by sheep (Marchant and Higgins 1993, Hume 2017). Diseases spread by introduced gamebirds may also account for its rapid extinction (Knox and Walters 1994). Shooting was also a threat to this species (Hume 2017).
Distribution:
Coturnix novaezelandiae was endemic to North, South and Great Barrier Islands, New Zealand (Marchant and Higgins 1993). It was considered fairly common until the mid-19th century, but declined rapidly to extinction by 1875 (Holdaway 1999). Suggestions that a quail population on Tiritiri Matangi Island may be a surviving form of this species were disproven by genetic testing, showing them to be Brown Quail Synoicus ypsilophorus (Seabrook-Davison et al. 2009).