Reunion Kestrel (Falco duboisi)
Posted on 31 December, 1672 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1672
Comments:
This species was endemic to the island of Réunion, but is now Extinct and has not been recorded since 1671-1672. Persecution is likely to have driven its decline.
Habitat:
It is likely to have occurred in open habitat throughout the island.
Causes:
Reasons for its extinction are unknown, but persecution and the depredations of introduced human commensals are implicated.
Distribution:
Falco duboisi is known only from subfossil bones collected by Bertrand Kervazo in the Grottes des Premiers Français on Réunion (to France) in 1974 (Cowles 1994). The only historical record of small falcons is of the emerillons reported by Dubois in 1671-2 as distinct from pieds jaunes and papangue, both of which probably refer to Reunion Harrier Circus maillardi (Cowles 1987). The specimens are deposited in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (Cowles 1994).