Bonin Thrush (Zoothera terrestris)
Posted on 31 December, 1828 in Extinct
Year Last Seen:
1828
Comments:
This species was formerly found in Japan's Ogasawara Islands, but is now Extinct likely due to overpredation by introduced mammals. Specimens were collected in 1828, but the next ornithological visit to the islands in 1889 did not locate the species.
Habitat:
Presumably it was confined to forest floor.
Causes:
Whalers started to use the island in the 1830s, and the species was probably driven to extinction by introduced rats and cats shortly after (Greenway 1967, Hume 2017).
Distribution:
Zoothera terrestris is only known from four specimens (now in Frankfurt, St Petersburg, Leiden and Vienna) collected in 1828 on Ogasawara-shoto (Peel Island, Bonin), Japan. It could not be found when the island was next visited by an ornithologist, in 1889, nor subsequently. Nothing is known of the species' ecology or extinction (Greenway 1967).