Broad-Billed Parrot (Lophopsittacus mauritianus)

Year Last Seen:

1700

Comments:

This species is known from Mauritius, but has been driven Extinct by hunting pressure. The last records date from 1673-1675, and it was absent in 1693.

Habitat:

There is very little known, although it is likely to have been a forest species and its heavy bill indicates it specialised on large nuts.

Causes:

Birds were large and were poor fliers, but not flightless (Holyoak 1971), and consequently heavily hunted (Cheke 1987) and this is likely to have caused its extinction.

Distribution:

Lophopsittacus mauritianus is known from numerous bones and travellers' reports and sketches from Mauritius (Cowles 1987). Hoffman, writing in 1680 based on observations in 1673-1675, gave the last definite reports of the species, and it had disappeared by 1693 (Cheke 1987).

References:

IUCN Redbook Data