Lord Howe Swamphen or White Swamphen (Porphyrio albus)
Posted on 31 December, 1790 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1790
Comments:
This species was known from Lord Howe Island, Australia, but has not been definitely recorded since 1790 and was Extinct by the time the island was settled in 1834. Hunting was the major cause of its decline.
Habitat:
Nothing is known; it may have inhabited forest or marshland.
Causes:
It was hunted to extinction by whalers and sailors.
Distribution:
Porphyrio albus is known from two skins in Liverpool (U.K.) and Vienna (Austria) (Taylor and van Perlo 1998), several paintings, and some subfossil bones from Lord Howe Island, Australia (Marchant and Higgins 1993). Although not uncommon when discovered in 1788, the species was rapidly hunted to extinction; it had probably already vanished by the time the island was colonised in 1834 (Hindwood 1940).