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30 December 2002
A Sad Tale - The Stephen Island Wren In 1894, the lighthouse keeper Mr. Lyall on Stephen Island in Cook Strait (between the North and South Islands of New Zealand) acquired a cat (Tibbles). Tibbles brought home and killed a strange bird later described as the Stephen Island Wren (Xenicidae Lyalli). Ten specimens, brought home by the cat, were sent to the British Museum. This may have been the only flightless passerine bird: certainly its distribution - less than one square mile on Stephen Island - was extremely limited.
Eventually all the birds - an entire species - were killed, mostly by the lighthouse keeper's cat, which has the dubious distinction of having discovered a new bird species and eliminating it shortly afterwards.
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There are three living species of the Zealand wren
remaining of the New :
1) the rock wren (Xenicus gilviventris),
2)
the rare bush wren (X. longipes), both found on South Island
3) the
rifleman (Acanthisitta chloris) which is common to both islands.
Xenicids are tiny birds with a nuthatch-like bill, a stout build, and an extremely short tail. The rifleman, only three inches (seven and a half centimeters) long, has brown and yellow plumage, resembling the early British rifle corp uniform. It is an arboreal insect eater, found mainly in beech trees. The bush wren occupies similar habitat. The rock wren feeds chiefly in open slopes on mountain ranges. Both the rock and bush wrens bob up and down vigorously on alighting, and the rifleman constantly quivers its wings.
Perhaps CatAlertTM could play a part in the preservation of the remaining Xenicidae Species.
References:
- Fuller Errol. 1987. Extinct Birds. New York: Facts on File Publications.
- Greenway, James C., Jr. 1967. Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
"A bird in the bush is worth two in the Cat"