Biology:New Zealand merganser
| New Zealand merganser Temporal range: Late Holocene
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|---|---|
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| Stuffed specimen from 1902 | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Genus: | Mergus |
| Species: | †M. australis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Mergus australis Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841
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The New Zealand merganser (Mergus australis), 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.[3] 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. 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.[4]
Subsequent fossil discoveries suggest that this merganser was previously resident in the South Island, and on Stewart Island/Rakiura in New Zealand. Fossils of a subspecies or closely related species have also been found on the Chatham Islands. There exists a short remark mentioning "a merganser" found on Campbell Island,[5] but this may just as well refer to the semi-marine Campbell teal which is otherwise missing in McCormick's notes: he only mentions the Pacific black duck ("a New Zealand species of duck").[6]
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2016). "Mergus australis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22680496A92864737. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680496A92864737.en. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680496/92864737. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Mergus australis. NZTCS". https://nztcs.org.nz/assessments/118737.
- ↑ Tennyson, Alan J. D. (2006). Extinct birds of New Zealand. Paul Martinson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Papa Press. pp. 54. ISBN 978-0-909010-21-8. OCLC 80016906. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80016906.
- ↑ 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
Wikidata ☰ Q758668 entry
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