Cabalus modestus

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Bibliography

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	AVES	GRUIFORMES	RALLIDAE

Scientific Name:

Cabalus modestus

Species Authority:

(Hutton, 1872)

Common Name/s:

English

–

Chatham Island Rail, Chatham Islands Rail, Chatham Rail

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Extinct ver 3.1

Year Published:

2008

Assessor/s:

BirdLife International

Reviewer/s:

Bird, J., Butchart, S.

History:

2004	–	Extinct
2000	–	Extinct
1994	–	Extinct
1988	–	Extinct

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	Cabalus modestus was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, New Zealand¹. It was first discovered on Mangere in 1871, and 26 specimens collected there are known from museum collections. It became extinct on the island between 1896 and 1900¹. The species is also known from 19th century bones from Chatham and Pitt Islands.
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Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	It is likely to have occurred in scrubland and tussock grass.
Systems:	Terrestrial

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	Its extinction was presumably caused by predation by rats and cats (which were introduced in the 1890s), habitat destruction to provide sheep pasture (which destroyed all of the island's bush and tussock grass by 1900), and from grazing by goats and rabbits¹. On Chatham and Pitt Islands Olson² has suggested that its extinction resulted from competition with the larger Dieffenbach's Rail Gallirallus dieffenbachii (also extinct), but the two species have been shown to have been sympatric on Mangere³.

Major Threat(s):

Its extinction was presumably caused by predation by rats and cats (which were introduced in the 1890s), habitat destruction to provide sheep pasture (which destroyed all of the island's bush and tussock grass by 1900), and from grazing by goats and rabbits¹. On Chatham and Pitt Islands Olson² has suggested that its extinction resulted from competition with the larger Dieffenbach's Rail Gallirallus dieffenbachii (also extinct), but the two species have been shown to have been sympatric on Mangere³.

Bibliography [top]

	Marchant, S.; Higgins, P. J. 1993. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, 2: raptors to lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Olson, S. L. 1975. A review of the extinct rails of the New Zealand region (Aves: Rallidae). National Museum of New Zealand Records 1: 63-79. Tennyson, A. J. D.; Millener, P. R. 1994. Bird extinctions and fossil bones from Mangere Island, Chatham Islands. Notornis (supplement) 41: 165-78.

Marchant, S.; Higgins, P. J. 1993. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, 2: raptors to lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

Olson, S. L. 1975. A review of the extinct rails of the New Zealand region (Aves: Rallidae). National Museum of New Zealand Records 1: 63-79.

Tennyson, A. J. D.; Millener, P. R. 1994. Bird extinctions and fossil bones from Mangere Island, Chatham Islands. Notornis (supplement) 41: 165-78.

Citation:	BirdLife International 2008. Cabalus modestus. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 24 May 2012.
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