Reunion Ibis (Threskiornis solitarius)

Year Last Seen:

1750

Comments:

This species was found on the Mascarene Islands, but is now considered Extinct having not been seen since 1761. Hunting is likely to have driven its decline.

Habitat:

It is likely to have inhabited freshwater wetlands.

Causes:

Hunting is likely to have been the main cause of its demise.

Distribution:

Threskiornis solitarius is known from bones recently discovered on Réunion (to France) (Mourer-Chauviré and Moutou 1987). It seems likely that the 'solitaire' known from numerous early accounts from Réunion (Cheke 1987) and Rodrigues, Mauritius, was in fact this ibis (Mourer-Chauviré et al. 1995), vindicating arguments for independent evolution of the Mascarene 'solitaires' (Storer 1970), in which case the last account is that of Abbé Gui Pingré (1763) a French astronomer who visited Rodrigues in 1761 to observe the transit of Venus and reported the bird to be near extinction. He had been told by the Commander, Marlène de Puvigné, that it was found only in remote corners of the island. This statement was the last mention of the bird (Staub 1996).

References:

IUCN Redbook Data