Chatham Island Takahē (Porphyrio kukwiedei)

Year Last Seen:

1860

Comments:

This species is known from New Caledonia's Grande Terre, but has not been recorded since 1860 and is now Extinct. Hunting and invasive species were the principal drivers of its decline.

Habitat:

It probably inhabited marshland.

Causes:

Hunting and the depredations of introduced predators are likely to have driven it to extinction.

Distribution:

Porphyrio kukwiedei is known only from subfossil remains from New Caledonia (to France). However, a passage from Verreaux and des Murs written in 1860 notes the presence of birds the size of turkeys in marshy areas, and so it is possible that the species survived into the 19th century (Balouet and Olson 1989).

References:

IUCN Redbook Data