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Description

A selection of recently extinct fauna of New Zealand, to scale.

This is a follow up post to Extinct island fauna - New Zealand 1 and Wingless giants - Moa , and will concentrate on ground-dwelling and aquatic/coastal birds.

* Originally described as a species of moa, the two species of adzebills Aptornis (one on each of the main islands) were large flightless birds. Armed with a robust pointed beak, it is thought that they hunted small birds, reptiles and invertebrates. Adzebills are closely related to a living group known as wood-rails and flufftails, and more distantly to typical rails.

* Like most Pacific islands, New Zealand (NZ) has it's fair share of rail extinctions. The flightless takahe on the South Island is the largest living rail in the world and, but without some hasty conservation measures, it would have followed it's North Island brethren to extinction (see also Back From Brink - Rails ). Those from the north were taller and more slender than the living species. Relative to body size the snipe-rail had the smallest wings of any known rail. They were probably most closely related to Cabalus rails on the remote Chatham Islands to the south-east of NZ (see also Extinct Island Fauna - Chatham Islands ) and New Caledonia (see also Extinct Island Fauna - Melanesia 1 ). The coot and waterhen were closely related to Australian species.

* Coenocorypha snipe were once distributed across the South-west Pacific but sadly like the rails many species are now lost. The two species on the main islands are both extinct with those on the North Island only just surving long enough for a specimen to be collected in 1870. Tragically conservation attempts in the 1960s to save the South Island species failed, when their last bastion (Big South Cape Island) was overrun by rats. The few individuals captured did not cope well in captivity, needing a steady supply of live food.

* Sitting at the boundary between the Pacific and Southern Oceans, NZ is a haven for many seabird species. Both penguins and shearwaters have multiple species which either frequent or breed there. Both extinct species disappeared following Maori settlement. See also Tuxedos of the south - Spheniscids 2 .
* Both the bittern and the quail, have close relatives in Australia, and survived into historic times.

Description

A selection of recently extinct fauna of New Zealand, to scale.

This is a follow up post to Extinct island fauna - New Zealand 1 and Wingless giants - Moa , and will concentrate on ground-dwelling and aquatic/coastal birds.

* Originally described as a species of moa, the two species of adzebills Aptornis (one on each of the main islands) were large flightless birds. Armed with a robust pointed beak, it is thought that they hunted small birds, reptiles and invertebrates. Adzebills are closely related to a living group known as wood-rails and flufftails, and more distantly to typical rails.

* Like most Pacific islands, New Zealand (NZ) has it's fair share of rail extinctions. The flightless takahe on the South Island is the largest living rail in the world and, but without some hasty conservation measures, it would have followed it's North Island brethren to extinction (see also Back From Brink - Rails ). Those from the north were taller and more slender than the living species. Relative to body size the snipe-rail had the smallest wings of any known rail. They were probably most closely related to Cabalus rails on the remote Chatham Islands to the south-east of NZ (see also Extinct Island Fauna - Chatham Islands ) and New Caledonia (see also Extinct Island Fauna - Melanesia 1 ). The coot and waterhen were closely related to Australian species.

* Coenocorypha snipe were once distributed across the South-west Pacific but sadly like the rails many species are now lost. The two species on the main islands are both extinct with those on the North Island only just surving long enough for a specimen to be collected in 1870. Tragically conservation attempts in the 1960s to save the South Island species failed, when their last bastion (Big South Cape Island) was overrun by rats. The few individuals captured did not cope well in captivity, needing a steady supply of live food.

* Sitting at the boundary between the Pacific and Southern Oceans, NZ is a haven for many seabird species. Both penguins and shearwaters have multiple species which either frequent or breed there. Both extinct species disappeared following Maori settlement. See also Tuxedos of the south - Spheniscids 2 .
* Both the bittern and the quail, have close relatives in Australia, and survived into historic times.