Fan-tailed Gerygone (Gerygone insularis)
Posted on 31 December, 1936 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1936
Comments:
This species was endemic to Lord Howe Island, Australia, but was driven Extinct by the depredations of introduced rats. It was last recorded in 1928, with none found on a survey in 1936.
Habitat:
It was a canopy-dwelling forest species (Hull 1909), feeding on small insects and spiders (Sharland 1929).
Causes:
Presumably its extinction resulted from nest predation by rats (Recher 1974). Disease from introduced passerines may also have been a factor (McAllan et al. 2004).
Distribution:
Gerygone insularis was an abundant endemic to Lord Howe Island, Australia, until the island was colonised by rats from a shipwreck in 1918. It was heard frequently in 1928 (Sharland 1929) but could not be found on a visit in 1936 (Hindwood 1940), and there are no subsequent records (Recher and Clark 1974).