Tasmanian emu
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Tasmanian Emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis ) |
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| Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis | ||||||||||||
| Le Souëf , 1907 |
The Tasmanian emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis ) is an extinct subspecies of the great emus ( Dromaius novaehollandiae ). In 1904, Dudley Le Souëf regarded it as an independent species, Dromaius diemenensis , and described it scientifically in 1907. According to Michael Gerrans Ridpath and Reginald Ernest Moreau, however , the differences between the two forms were too small, so that the Tasmanian Emu was reclassified as a subspecies in 1966.
features
The Tasmanian Emu reached a size of 150 to 190 cm. It differed from the Australian nominate form in the lack of black feathers on the throat and front neck. These areas were completely white in the Tasmanian Emu. The neck was bald.
Vocalizations
Both males and females made booming noises.
Habitat and way of life
Little is known about the way of life of the Tasmanian emus. The ornithologist Colonel William Vincent Legge (1841-1918) wrote in 1907 that the birds inhabited remote mountain swamps and highland savannahs as well as open pastureland on the north and east coasts. In 1852 Gunn noted that the parents shared the incubation of the eggs. The rearing of the young was the sole responsibility of the female. The ornithologist Archibald James Campbell (1853–1929) noticed in 1900 that the grain on the light background appears finer than that of the nominate-shaped eggs and that the color is an intense dark green.
die out
Although the botanist and politician Ronald Campbell Gunn (1808-1881) had already reported on Tasmanian emus in 1852, it was not until 1907 that Dudley Le Souëf published the first scientific description. Gunn suspected that the Tasmanian emu was smaller than the mainland nominate form. However, bones that were subsequently brought to light showed that the differences were only minor. Le Souëf examined early reports of emus in Tasmania and noted that they were once numerous and frequently sighted by the early settlers. He mentioned that in 1803 a Reverend R. Knockwood noted a bird with six cubs in his journal. John Meredith informed Le Souëf about a couple with six boys whom he observed in 1851. Around 1840 a Mr. Ransom from Killymoon hunted the emus with dogs. He remembered a Captain Hepburn from Roy's Hill who found a clutch of eight or nine eggs, which were then hatched by a turkey . The emus used later breeded themselves and Baron Frederick Lewis von Stieglitz was able to acquire a pair of them. In 1873, the last known Tasmanian emu died in Launceston City Park , Tasmania. This specimen has not been preserved. An emu sighted in 1884 apparently belonged to the mainland form. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Tasmanian emus were both hunted as a food source and persecuted as a plague. Extensive slash and burn to gain open grassland and scrubland for agriculture ensured that emus became very rare in the 1830s and disappeared from many regions of Tasmania. Emus were introduced to Tasmania from mainland Australia in the early 1850s. These hybridized with the native breed, so that it became extinct in the wild by the mid-1860s. Tasmanian emus bones were brought to light at various times. Herbert Hedley Scott (1866-1938) reported in 1923 about Tom Edwards, who discovered some bones in Mowbray Samp and EW Clarke, who discovered subfossil material in Mole Creek. Scott turned his attention to the sturdy pool elements, which he interpreted as adapting to powerful pawing and digging. The bones vary considerably in size, and Gunn suspected a sexual dimorphism , considering the males to be slightly larger than the females. A tibiotarsus , which was discovered in 1920 in the deposits of a Pleistocene swamp near Irish Town in northwest Tasmania, belongs to the Tasmanian Emu. Apparently it is just as big as the tibiotarsus of the mainland form. Gunn, who kept several Tasmanian emus captive for several years, wrote in 1852:
“I now have a leg of a Tasmanian emus and, as far as I can tell from this very incomplete specimen, there are differences in the arrangement and size of the scales that justify the Tasmanian emus splitting off from the New Holland shape . "
The leg was missing for 70 years before Scott was able to examine it again in 1923. On his result, he agreed with Gunn that the scales were indeed different from those of the Australian mainland form.
Two bellows from Gunn's collection were in the Tring Museum for a while, but they have been lost. Eggs and subfossil material can be found in the museums of Tring, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, Gothenburg, Launceston, London and Nijmwegen. Another specimen that is kept in the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt was suspected to be a Tasmanian emu as well. In 1959, however , Joachim Steinbacher stated that Tasmania was only mistakenly named as the place of origin.
literature
- H. Stuart Dove: The Tasmanian Emu. In: Emu. Vol. 25, 1926, pp. 290-291. (pdf; online)
- Dieter Luther: The extinct birds of the world. (= The New Brehm Library ). 3rd, updated edition. A. Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg 1986, pp. 19-20.
- Tim H. Heuping, Leon Huynen, David M. Lambert: Ancient DNA Suggests Dwarf and 'Giant' Emu Are Conspecific . In: PLoS ONE . tape 6 , no. 4 , April 2011, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0018728 , PMID 21494561 , PMC 3073985 (free full text) - (English).
- Julian Pender Hume, Michael P. Walters: Extinct Birds. A & C Black 2012, ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1 , pp. 22-23.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ D. Le Souëf: Collection of Australian birds' eggs and nests in the possession of D. Le Souef, Director, Zoological Gardens, Melbourne. 1904a.
- ^ A b D. Le Souëf: The Extinct Tasmanian Emu. In: Emu. Volume 3, 1904b, pp. 114-115.
- ^ D. Le Souëf: Remarks on the Tasmanian Emu (Dromaeus diemenensis). In: Bulletin of the British Ornithologist's Club. Volume 21, 1907, p. 13.
- ^ MG Ridpath, RE Moreau: The Birds of Tasmania: Ecology and Evolution. In: Ibis. Volume 108, 1966, pp. 348-393.
- ↑ a b c d R. C. Gunn: [Letters to editor] In Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania. Volume 2, No. 1, 1852, pp. 168-170.
- ^ WV Legge: The emus of Tasmania and King Island. In: Emu. Volume 6, 1907, pp. 116-119.
- ^ Archibald J. Campbell: Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds: Including the Geographical Distribution of the Species and Popular Observations Thereon . Pawson & Brailsford, Sheffield 1900.
- ↑ a b H. H. Scott: A note on the King Island Emu (including a note on the Tasmanian Emu). In: Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania. [1923], pp. 103-107.
- ↑ J. Steinbacher: Further information on extinct, dying and rare birds in the Senckenberg Museum. In: Senckenbergia Biologica. Volume 40, 1959, pp. 1-14.