Rodrigues solitaire
| Rodrigues solitaire | ||||||||||
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Rodrigues solitaire ( Pezophaps solitaria ) |
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||
| Pezophaps | ||||||||||
| Strickland , 1848 | ||||||||||
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| Pezophaps solitaria | ||||||||||
| ( Gmelin , 1789) |
The Rodrigues solitaire ( Pezophaps solitaria ) is an extinct species of the pigeon birds (Columbiformes). The approximately 90 cm tall bird was a ground dweller and only distributed on the island of Rodrigues . In the course of the settlement of the island, the solitaire died out in the middle of the 18th century, because the introduced pigs and cats as well as hunting by humans increasingly decimated the population of flightless birds.
The Rodrigues solitaire was probably closely related to the also extinct dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) from Mauritius , with which it is placed in the subfamily Raphinae .
features
François Leguat , who lived on Rodrigues between 1691 and 1693, described the solitaire as about 90 cm tall and 20 kg heavy, turkey-like bird with short wings. According to Leguat, males grew larger than females and had a brownish plumage.
nutrition
The discovery of stomach stones in solitary skeletons is seen by some scientists as an indication that the solitaire fed on large, hard plant seeds, whose massive shell it destroyed with the help of the stones in its stomach. Thus the solitary would have played a key role in the spread of the sapote family Sideroxylon galeatum . This tree species, endemic to Rodrigues , is rare today, but it may have been a dominant plant on the island in earlier times.
Brood
Rodrigues solitaires were not colony breeders according to reports from early naturalists. They strictly demarcated their territory from conspecifics and defended it as a couple. The nest built on the ground was made of stacked palm leaves. The female placed a white egg in the nest, which was slightly larger than a goose egg.
Systematics and research history
The existence of the Rodrigues solitaire has long been in doubt. In 1789, however, bones were found in a cave, and further finds were made in 1867. The solitaire is considered to be the closest relative of the dodos ( Raphus cucullatus ). Its body structure was very different from that of the dodos, so that both species were placed in different genera, sometimes even in separate families - Pezophapidae and Raphidae.
die out
The birds could easily be caught due to their inability to fly. François Leguat and his men particularly appreciated the tender meat of the young birds. The stocks were quickly decimated by the heavy hunting by humans and by imported cats , rats and pigs . As early as 1755, the Governor General of the Mascarene Islands, David Charpentier de Cossigny , stated that he had been looking for a solitaire in vain for 18 months. Presumably the bird died out by 1760 at the latest, in later records there are no longer even vague references to the existence of the bird.
Museums
Very few skeletons of the Rodrigues solitaire can still be found in museums. The Hunterian Museum in London has a male and a female skeleton of the Rodrigues solitaire. There are two more skeletons each in the Paris Museum of Natural History and in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt .
Sources and References
literature
- AW Diamond (Ed.): Studies of Mascarene Island Birds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987. ISBN 0-521-25808-1 .
Web links
- Information about Rodrigues solitaires. Birds.mu (English) ( Memento from May 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Research on the pedigree of the Dodo family. Birds.mu (English) ( Memento from June 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Pezophaps solitaria in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2013. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Accessed January 28, 2014.