Mauritius sheldgoose

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Mauritius sheldgoose
Black and white lithograph of a wing-bone
1893 illustrations of the first known carpometacarpus wing-bone

Extinct (1698)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Alopochen
Species:
†A. mauritiana
Binomial name
†Alopochen mauritiana
(Newton & Gadow, 1893)
Location of Mauritius
Synonyms
  • Sarcidiornis mauritianus Newton & Gadow, 1893

The Mauritius sheldgoose (Alopochen mauritiana), also known as the Mauritius shelduck, is an

Mascarene islands
.

One contemporary account states that the Mauritius sheldgoose had wings that were half black and half white, and that the bird was not very large. The species may also be depicted in one illustration. Fossil elements show that it was smaller than the Egyptian goose, but with more robust legs. Little is known about the habits of the Mauritius sheldgoose, accounts indicate they were very tame, were grazers, lived in groups, and usually stayed on the north side of the island except for during the dry season when they were forced to the other side to drink. Their robust legs indicate they were becoming more terrestrial, which is supported by accounts stating they avoided water. The species was considered highly palatable by travellers, and while abundant in 1681, it declined quickly thereafter, being declared extinct in 1698. It was probably driven to extinction due to overhunting and predation by introduced animals, particularly cats.

Taxonomy

Sarcidiornis, which they considered a new species due to having been restricted to Mauritius, naming it S. mauritianus. They also considered the incomplete left half of a pelvis to belong to this species.[3][4]

Because the contemporary accounts of geese on Mauritius did not mention a

Walter Rothschild noted Oustalet's objection to the species belonging in Sarcidiornis In 1907, he believed that it was merely an oversight that the caruncle was not mentioned in contemporary accounts, and that an allusion to the small size of these geese supported them being Sarcidiornis.[6] The American ornithologist James Greenway listed the bird as a species of Sarcidiornis in 1967.[8]

Grey goose near some water
The related Egyptian goose

In 1987, the British ornithologist

wildfowl, and noted that the interrelationships of the four extinct sheldgeese from the region of Madagascar and the western Indian Ocean were unclear, and that they may not all have been full species. They also listed the Mauritius sheldgoose as a species of Alopochen.[11]

The French palaeontologist Cécile Mourer-Chauviré and colleagues stated in 1999 that while the Mauritius sheldgoose was similar to the Malagasy and Réunion sheldgeese, it may have been

radius (a forelimb bone) as that of the sheldgoose, which had originally been assigned to the Mauritius night heron by Newton and Gadow in 1893.[14]

Reflecting changing historical classifications and definitions, the Mauritius sheldgoose has also been referred to by

common names such as Mauritius shelduck and Mascarene swan, with further variations such as Mauritian shelduck and Mascarene sheldgoose.[15]

Description

Black and white drawing of a farm in a forest with animals and human activities
Illustration of a Dutch farm on Mauritius from 1670, which may include the only contemporary depiction of a Mauritius sheldgoose (between the streams, lower middle right)

The best contemporary description of the Mauritius sheldgoose, and the only one that indicates what it looked like, is that of the English traveller John Marshall from 1668:[13]

Here are many geese, the halfe of their wings towards the end, are black, and the other halfe white. They are not large but fat and good [to eat].[2]

The holotype carpometacarpus of the Mauritius sheldgoose has a strongly projecting alular

flightless.[11]

Additional fossil elements show that the Mauritius sheldgoose was smaller than the Egyptian goose, but with more robust legs, a feature it had in common with the Réunion sheldgoose.[2] The pelvis of the Mauritius sheldgoose is also similar in size to that of the brant goose, measuring 70 mm (2.8 in) from the front brim of the acetabulum (the socket in the hip where the femur attaches) to the hind end of the ischium (which forms the back part of the pelvis), and generally agrees with the pelvis of ducks and geese.[3] While the bill of the Mauritius sheldgoose is unknown, that of the Réunion sheldgoose was distinct in being shorter than that of the Egyptian goose.[4]

Possible depiction

In 2004, Cheke attempted to identify a drawing of a bird that had been declared a dodo by the British historian

ebony forest to the Dutch East India Company, and that Lamotius had therefore been a sort of early conservationist.[16][17]

Cheke, who had previously researched the history of the dodo, found no documentary or ornithological arguments for this identification, and expressed puzzlement over it and other of Grove's conclusions. After contacting the

Mascarene teals, and a crow-like bird as a Mauritius bulbul.[16] Cheke and the British palaeontologist Jolyon C. Parish stated in 2020 that the illustration "almost certainly" showed the Mauritius sheldgoose.[18]

Behaviour and ecology

Mascarene teals (lower right) by Julian P. Hume

Little is known about the habits of the Mauritius sheldgoose.[2] The Dutch soldier Johannes Pretorius' 1660s report about his stay on Mauritius is the most detailed contemporary account of its behaviour:

Geese are also here in abundance. They are a little larger than ducks, very tame and stupid, seldom in the water, eating grass, sometimes 40 or 50 or even a 100 together. When they are being shot, the ones that are not hit by the hail stay put and do not fly away. They usually keep to the north side of the island, far away from where the people live, except in the dry season when they are forced to drink on the other side of the island, and sometimes near the lodge.[19]

Hume and the British historian Ria Winters stated in 2015 that like many geese, the Mauritius sheldgoose was a grazer, and pointed out that Mauritius once had seven endemic species of grass, two of which are now extinct, as well as other species.[19]

Hume suggested in 2017 that the relatively robust legs of the Mauritius sheldgoose may indicate it was becoming more terrestrial, supported by the 1681 ship's log of the President which stated:

Up a little within the woods are several ponds and lakes of water with great numbers of flamingoes and gray teal and geese; but for the geese these are most in the woods or dry ponds.[2]

Many other endemic species of Mauritius were lost after human colonisation of the island, so the

palm orchid, have also become extinct.[13]

Extinction

Travellers to Mauritius and Réunion made repeat mentions of highly palatable geese and ducks, and geese were listed among the favourite prey of hunters there. Cheke stated in 1987 that the Mauritius sheldgoose were considered abundant in 1681, but quickly declined thereafter; the French explorer

mammals, particularly cats.[2]

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Alopochen mauritianus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4729-3744-5
    .
  3. ^
    doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1893.tb00001.x
    .
  4. ^
    hdl:10088/2005
    .
  5. ^ Oustalet, M. E. (1896). "Notice sur la faune ornithologique ancienne et moderne des Iles Mascareignes et en particulier de I'lle Maurice" [Notice on the ancient and modern ornithological fauna of the Mascarenes and Mauritius in particular]. Annales des Sciences Naturelles; Zoologie (in French). 8 (3): 102–103.
  6. ^
    OCLC 191907718
    .
  7. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1897.tb03281.x
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-486-21869-4
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-511-73576-9
    .
  10. doi:10.1016/S0016-6995(06)80215-9
    .
  11. ^
    ISSN 2052-6458
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-8014-3954-4
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7136-6544-4
    .
  14. ^ Hume, J. P. (2013). Göhlich, U. B.; Kroh, A. (eds.). "A synopsis of the pre-human avifauna of the Mascarene Islands". Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution: 208.
  15. ^ "Alopochen mauritiana (Mauritian Shelduck) – Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  16. ^
    doi:10.3366/anh.2001.28.3.347
    .
  17. ISBN 978-0-521-56513-4
    .
  18. doi:10.3390/quat3010004
    .
  19. ^
    S2CID 84473440
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  20. doi:10.1017/S0030605300020457
    .
  21. doi:10.1017/S0030605300012643
    .
  22. ISBN 978-0-521-11331-1
    .
  23. ^ Cheke, A. S. (2013). "Extinct birds of the Mascarenes and Seychelles – a review of the causes of extinction in the light of an important new publication on extinct birds". Phelsuma. 21: 4–19.
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