Auckland Island merganser
New Zealand merganser Temporal range: Late Holocene
| |
---|---|
Stuffed specimen from 1902 | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Anseriformes |
Family: | Anatidae |
Genus: | Mergus |
Species: | †M. australis
|
Binomial name | |
†Mergus australis |
The New Zealand merganser (Mergus australis) (Māori: Miuweka),[3] also known as Auckland merganser or Auckland Islands merganser, was a typical merganser which is now extinct.
Description
This duck was similar in size to the red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator). The adult male had a dark reddish-brown head, crest and neck, with bluish black mantle and tail and slate grey wings.[4] The female was slightly smaller with a shorter crest.
History
This bird's Māori name was miuweka.[2] It was first collected when a French expedition led by the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville on the ships L'Astrolabe and La Zelee visited the Auckland Islands in 1840. Its decline was caused by a combination of hunting and predation by introduced mammals.[5] The bird was not flightless, but rather hard to flush; it preferred to hide between rocks when pursued. The last sighting was of a pair shot on January 9, 1902. It was not found in a 1909 search, and a thorough 1972/1973 exploration of possible habitat concluded that it was long extinct.[6]
Subsequent fossil discoveries suggest that this merganser was previously resident in the
References
- . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ a b "Mergus australis. NZTCS". nztcs.org.nz. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ^ "Auckland Island merganser | Miuweka | New Zealand Birds Online". nzbirdsonline.org.nz. Retrieved 2023-11-26.
- OCLC 80016906.
- ^ Russell, James; Horn, Stephen R.; Miskelly, Colin M.; Sagar, Rachael; Taylor, Rowland H. (2020). "Introduced land mammals and their impacts on the birds of the subantarctic Auckland Islands". Notornis. 67 (1): 247–268.
- ^ Williams, G. R. & Weller, M. W.. (1974): Unsuccessful search for the Auckland Islands Merganser (Mergus australis). Notornis 21(3): 246–249. PDF fulltext
- ^ McCormick, Robert (1842): A sketch of the Antarctic regions, embracing a few passing remarks, geographical and ornithological. Tasmanian Journal of Natural Sciences 1(4): 241–247. PDF fulltext
- ^ * Southern Merganser. Mergus australis. by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book Extinct Birds of New Zealand, by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006