Reunion goose
| Reunion goose | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Alopochen kervazoi | ||||||||||||
| ( Cowles , 1994) |
The Reunion goose ( Alopochen kervazoi ) is an extinct species of bird from the subfamily of demi -geese . It was endemic to the island of Reunion . The species is named after the paleontologist Bertrand Kervazo, who unearthed the subfossil remains in the grotto of the Premiers Français on Réunion in 1974 . Other material comes from the fossil deposits Grotte de l'Autel , Grotte au “sable” and Marais de l'Ermitage .
The formal scientific description was given in 1994 by Graham S. Cowles.
die out
In 1619 the Dutch travel writer Willem Ysbrandsz reported. Bontekoe for the first time from geese on Réunion. The only detailed description comes from the French traveler Dubois, who in 1674 described the bird as slightly smaller than the European geese. The Reunion goose is said to have looked very similar to the Egyptian goose , but had more robust leg bones and a short, strong beak. Feet and beak were reddish. The reason for their extinction was overhunting, as the meat of the birds was very tasty. In 1665, the French traveler François Martin highlighted the frequency of geese in the Saint Gilles lagoon and wrote that the birds were so trusting that you could grab them with your hands. In 1667, Martin visited the Saint Paul lagoon and noticed that the habitat had been destroyed and the geese had disappeared. In 1710, the governor of l'Île Bourbon (now Réunion) Antoine Desforges-Boucher (1681–1725) wrote in his work “ Mémoire d 'Antoine Boucher sur l'île Bourbon en 1710 ”: “Dear Sirs. You can find nothing of these animals, only the pathetic remains of what their insatiable voracity could escape ”.
literature
- Nicolas Barré, Armand Barau & Christian Jouanin: Oiseaux de la Réunion . Editions du Pacifique, Paris 1996, 208 pp., ISBN 2-87763-263-6 .
- Anthony Cheke & Julian Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo , p. 112. T. & AD Poyser, 2008, ISBN 0-7136-6544-0 .
Web links
- BirdLife Species factsheet
- Alopochen kervazoi inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Endangered Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ^ Cowles, Graham S. (1994): A new genus, three new species and two new records of extinct Holocene birds from Réunion Island, Indian Ocean. Geobios 27 (1): 87-93.