Rodrigues parrot

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Rodrigues parrot
Subfossil
skull and limb bones, 1879

Extinct (soon after 1761)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittaculidae
Genus: Necropsittacus
Milne-Edwards, 1873
Species:
†N. rodricanus
Binomial name
†Necropsittacus rodricanus
(Milne-Edwards, 1867)
Location of Rodrigues
Synonyms
  • Psittacus rodricanus Milne-Edwards, 1867
  • Psittacus rodericanus Milne-Edwards, 1873
  • Necropsittacus rodericanus Newton, 1875

The Rodrigues parrot or Leguat's parrot (Necropsittacus rodricanus) is an

subfossil bones and from mentions in contemporary accounts. It is unclear to which other species it is most closely related, but it is classified as a member of the tribe Psittaculini, along with other Mascarene parrots. The Rodrigues parrot bore similarities to the broad-billed parrot of Mauritius, and may have been related. Two additional species have been assigned to its genus
(N. francicus and N. borbonicus), based on descriptions of parrots from the other Mascarene islands, but their identities and validity have been debated.

The Rodrigues parrot was green, and had a proportionally large head and beak and a long tail. Its exact size is unknown, but it may have been around 50 cm (20 in) long. It was the largest parrot on Rodrigues, and it had the largest head of any Mascarene parrot. It may have looked similar to the great-billed parrot. By the time it was discovered, it frequented and nested on islets off southern Rodrigues, where introduced rats were absent, and fed on the seeds of the shrub Fernelia buxifolia. The species was last mentioned in 1761, and probably became extinct soon after, perhaps due to a combination of predation by introduced animals, deforestation, and hunting by humans.

Taxonomy

Birds thought to be the Rodrigues parrot were first mentioned by the French traveler

1761 transit of Venus.[2][3][4]

Holotype upper beak, 1867

In 1867, the French zoologist

lories in the genus Eclectus, he preferred to give it a less precise classification than assigning it to that genus, due to the scant remains.[6]

The

Palaeornis, Milne-Edwards moved the species to its own genus Necropsittacus in 1873; the name is derived from the Greek words nekros, which means dead, and psittakos, parrot, in reference to the bird being extinct.[7][10]

In another footnote to his 1873 compilation, Milne-Edwards correlated the subfossil species with parrots mentioned by Leguat.

colour morphs of the latter.[7]

The current whereabouts of the holotype beak are unknown. It may be specimen UMZC 575, a rostrum that was sent from Milne-Edwards to A. Newton after 1880, which matches the drawing and description in Milne-Edwards's paper, but this cannot be confirmed.[7] In 1879 the German ornithologist Albert Günther and E. Newton described more fossils of the Rodrigues parrot, including a skull and limb bones.[12] Remains of the species are scarce, but subfossils have been discovered in caves on the Plaine Corail and in Caverne Tortue.[13]

Evolution

Assigned beak, 1873

Many

osteological features, but were unable to determine whether they both belonged in the same genus, since a head-crest was only known from the latter.[14] The British ornithologist Graham S. Cowles instead found their skulls too dissimilar for them to be close relatives in 1987.[15]

Hume has suggested that the Mascarene parrots have a common origin in the

hotspot islands before the Mascarenes emerged from the sea.[2]

Hypothetical extinct relatives

Henrik Grönvold, showing the colouration of the hypothetical species
N. borbonicus combined with the body-plan of the Rodrigues parrot

The British zoologist

Réunion parakeet] with head, upper parts of the wings, and tail the colour of fire" on Réunion. Rothschild considered it to belong to Necropsittacus since Dubois compared it to related species.[7][16][17][18]

The two assigned Necropsittacus species have since become the source of much taxonomic confusion, and their identities have been debated. N. borbonicus later received

lory seen by Dubois, since 16th century Dutch paintings show the somewhat similar East Indian chattering lory, presumably in captivity. However, Greenway was unable to find any references that matched those Rothschild had given for N. francicus.[7][19][20]

In 1987, Cheke found the described colour-pattern of N. borbonicus remiscent of Psittacula parrots, but considered N. francicus to be based on confused reports.[4] In 2001 the British writer Errol Fuller suggested Dubois's account of N. borbonicus could either have referred to an otherwise unrecorded species or have been misleading, and found N. francicus to be "one of the most dubious of all hypothetical species".[18] In 2007, Hume suggested that Rothschild had associated N. borbonicus with the Rodrigues parrot because he had mistakenly incorporated Dubois's account into his description of the latter; he stated the Rodrigues parrot also had red plumage (though it was all-green), and had been mentioned by Dubois (who never visited Rodrigues). Rothschild also attributed the sighting of N. francicus to Dubois, repeating the colour-pattern he had described earlier for the Rodrigues parrot, and this led Hume to conclude that the name N. francicus was based solely on "the muddled imagination of Lord Rothschild". Hume added that if Dubois's description of N. borbonicus was based on a parrot endemic to Réunion, it may have been derived from the Alexandrine parakeet, which has a similar colouration, apart from the red tail.[7][16]

Description

Life restoration
of two Rodrigues parrots

The Rodrigues parrot was described as being the largest parrot species on the island, with a big head and a long tail. Its plumage was described as being of uniform green colouration.

metatarsus (foot bone) 22 mm (0.87 in).[12] Its exact body length is unknown, but it may have been around 50 cm (20 in), comparable to the size of a large cockatoo.[18] Its tibia was 32% smaller than that of a female broad-billed parrot, yet the pectoral bones were of similar size, and proportionally its head was the largest of any Mascarene species of parrot.[7]

The Rodrigues parrot was similar in skeletal structure to the parrot genera

New Zealand kaka, and it may have looked like the great-billed parrot in life, but with a larger head and tail. It differed from other Mascarene parrots in several skeletal features, including having nostrils that faced upwards instead of forwards. No features of the skull suggest it had a crest like the broad-billed parrot, and there is not enough fossil evidence to determine whether it had pronounced sexual dimorphism.[7] There are intermediate specimens between the longest and shortest examples of the known skeletal elements, which indicates there were no distinct size groups.[12]

Behaviour and ecology

The Rodrigues parrot may have resembled the great-billed parrot

Tafforet's 1726 description is the only detailed account of the Rodrigues parrot in life:

The largest are larger than a pigeon, and have a tail very long, the head large as well as the beak. They mostly come on the islets which are to the south of the island, where they eat a small black seed, which produces a small shrub whose leaves have the smell of the orange tree, and come to the mainland to drink water ... they have their plumage green.[7]

Tafforet also mentioned that the parrots ate the seeds of the shrub Fernelia buxifolia ("bois de buis"), which is endangered today, but was common all over Rodrigues and nearby islets during his visit. Leguat mentioned that the parrots of the island ate the nuts of the tree Cassine orientalis ("bois d'olive"). Due to a large population of introduced rats on Rodrigues, the parrots, the Rodrigues starling, and the Rodrigues pigeon, frequented and nested on offshore islets, where the rats were absent.[7]

Many of the other endemic species of Rodrigues became extinct after the arrival of humans, so the ecosystem of the island is heavily damaged. Before humans arrived, forests covered the island entirely, but very little remains today due to deforestation. The Rodrigues parrot lived alongside other recently extinct birds such as the Rodrigues solitaire, the Rodrigues rail, Newton's parakeet, the Rodrigues starling, the Rodrigues scops owl, the Rodrigues night heron, and the Rodrigues pigeon. Extinct reptiles include the domed Rodrigues giant tortoise, the saddle-backed Rodrigues giant tortoise, and the Rodrigues day gecko.[2]

Extinction

Map of Rodrigues, decorated with solitaires
Map of human settlement on Rodrigues
François Leguat's 1708 maps of Rodrigues and his settlement

Of the eight or so parrot species endemic to the Mascarenes, only the echo parakeet of Mauritius has survived. The others were likely all made extinct by a combination of excessive hunting and deforestation by humans. Like mainland Rodrigues, the offshore islets were eventually infested by rats, which is believed to have caused the demise of the Rodrigues parrot and other birds there.[7] Cats may also have hunted the remaining birds.[21] The rats probably preyed on their eggs and chicks.[19]

Leguat mentioned use of local parrots as food, but it is uncertain whether the green species was the Rodrigues parrot or a green Newton's parakeet:[7]

There are abundance of green and blew Parrets, they are of a midling and equal bigness; when they are young, their Flesh is as good as young Pigeons.[7]

Pingré indicated in 1671 that local species were popular game, and found that the Rodrigues parrot was rare:

The perruche [Newton's parakeet] seemed to me much more delicate [than the flying-fox]. I would not have missed any game from France if this one had been commoner in Rodrigues; but it begins to become rare. There are even fewer perroquets [Rodrigues parrots], although there were once a big enough quantity according to François Leguat; indeed a little islet south of Rodrigues still retains the name Isle of Parrots [Isle Pierrot].[7]

Pingré also reported that the island was becoming deforested by tortoise hunters who set fires to clear vegetation. Along with direct hunting of the parrots, this likely led to a reduction in the population of Rodrigues parrots. Pingré's 1761 account is the last known mention of the species, and it probably became extinct soon after.[7]

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22728851A94998888.en
    . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7136-6544-4
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  3. ^ a b Leguat, F. (1891). Pasfield Oliver, S. (ed.). The voyage of François Leguat of Bresse, to Rodriguez, Mauritius, Java, and the Cape of Good Hope. Vol. 1. London: Hakluyt Society. pp. 84–85. Archived from the original on 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-11331-1
    .
  5. S2CID 128901896
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  6. ^ Milne-Edwards, A. (1867). "Une Psittacien fossile de l'Île Rodrigue". Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Zoologie. Series 5 (in French). 8: 145–156. Archived from the original on 2017-10-25. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  7. ^
    doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1513.1.1. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-21. Retrieved 2013-08-05.
  8. ^ a b Milne-Edwards, A. (1866–1873). Recherches sur la faune ornithologique éteinte des iles Mascareignes et de Madagascar (in French). Paris: G. Masson. pp. 23–34. Archived from the original on 2016-10-10. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  9. ^ Gill, F.; Donsker, D. (2014). "Parrots & cockatoos". IOC World Bird List. Archived from the original on May 17, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  10. ^ Milne-Edwards, A. (1873). "Recherches sur la faune ancienne des Iles Mascareignes". Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Zoologie. Series 5 (in French). 19: 1–31. Archived from the original on 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  11. ^ Newton, A. (1875). "Additional evidence as to the original fauna of Rodriguez". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 39–43. Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  12. ^
    doi:10.1098/rstl.1879.0043
    .
  13. ^ Hume, J. P. (2013). Göhlich, U. B.; Kroh, A. (eds.). "A synopsis of the pre-human avifauna of the Mascarene Islands" (PDF). Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution: 195–237. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  14. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1893.tb00001.x. Archived
    from the original on 2017-09-11. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  15. ISBN 978-0-511-73576-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  16. ^ a b Rothschild, W. (1905). "On extinct and vanishing birds". Ornis (Proceedings of the 4th International Ornithological Congress, London). 14: 191–217. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  17. ^ Rothschild, W. (1907). Extinct Birds. London: Hutchinson & Co. pp. 61–62. Archived from the original on 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
  18. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8014-3954-4
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  19. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4081-5725-1
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  20. ISBN 978-0-486-21869-4
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  21. ^ 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.

External links

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