| Aldabra brush warbler | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Acrocephalidae |
| Genus: | Nesillas |
| Species: | †N. aldabrana |
| Binomial name | |
| †Nesillas aldabrana | |
| Synonyms | |
Nesillas aldabranus (lapsus) | |
The Aldabra brush warbler (Nesillas aldabrana) is an extinct bird in the acrocephalid warbler family. It was endemic to the atoll of Aldabra in the Seychelles and an individual was last seen in 1983.
The Aldabra brush warbler was a slender bird with relatively short wings and a long, pointed tail. It reached a total length of 18 to 20 cm (7.1 to 7.9 in). The upper parts were dun and the underparts a rather paler hue. The song was never recorded but the call was a nasal, three-syllable chirrup. [2]
The Aldabra brush warbler was a shy and retiring bird, difficult to observe in the dense undergrowth in which it lived. It was most readily located by its chirruping call. [2]
The Aldabra brush warbler was discovered by British ornithologists Constantine Walter Benson, Malcolm Penny and Tony Diamond in 1967 and described in 1968 by Benson and Penny on the basis of a male, a female and a nest with 3 eggs. Juveniles were never found. [3]
After the discovery the brush warbler was not seen until a survey by Robert Prys-Jones of the British Museum of Natural History from 1974 to 1976. At the end of 1975 he found six further birds which were all males. The birds were ringed and photographed. [3] In 1983, only one male was observed and the Aldabra brush warbler was considered as the rarest and (in its occurrence) most restricted bird in the world. It was confined to a 10 ha large coastal strip on the Aldabran island of Malabar. Following intensive surveys, the extinction of this bird was confirmed in 1986. It has been listed as officially extinct by the IUCN since 1994. [1]
The possible reasons for its extinction could be attributed to the presence of rats, cats and goats introduced to the atoll many years previously. [1]
Aldabra is the world's second-largest coral atoll, lying south-east of the continent of Africa. It is part of the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that are part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, with a distance of 1,120 km (700 mi) southwest of the capital, Victoria on Mahé Island.
Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, as well as two extant species with multiple subspecies formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the Galápagos Islands.
Bachman's warbler is a likely extinct passerine migratory bird. This warbler was a migrant, breeding in swampy blackberry and cane thickets of the Southeastern and Midwestern United States and wintering in Cuba. There are some reports of the bird from the twenty-first century, but none are widely accepted. Some authorities accept a sighting in Louisiana, in August 1988 as confirmed, but the last uncontroversial sightings date to the 1960s.
The Dartford warbler is a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe and northwestern Africa. It is a small warbler with a long thin tail and a thin pointed bill. The adult male has grey-brown upperparts and is dull reddish-brown below except for the centre of the belly which has a dirty white patch. It has light speckles on the throat and a red eye-ring. The sexes are similar but the adult female is usually less grey above and paler below.
In paleontology, a Lazarus taxon is a taxon that disappears for one or more periods from the fossil record, only to appear again later. Likewise in conservation biology and ecology, it can refer to species or populations that were thought to be extinct, and are rediscovered. The term Lazarus taxon was coined by Karl W. Flessa & David Jablonski in 1983 and was then expanded by Jablonski in 1986. Wignall and Benton defined Lazarus taxa as, "At times of biotic crisis many taxa go extinct, but others only temporarily disappeared from the fossil record, often for intervals measured in millions of years, before reappearing unchanged". Earlier work also supports the concept though without using the name Lazarus taxon, like work by Christopher R. C. Paul.
The Aldabra giant tortoise is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is endemic to the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles. It is one of the largest tortoises in the world. Historically, giant tortoises were found on many of the western Indian Ocean islands, as well as Madagascar, and the fossil record indicates giant tortoises once occurred on every continent and many islands with the exception of Australia and Antarctica. Many of the Indian Ocean species were thought to be driven to extinction by over-exploitation by European sailors, and they were all seemingly extinct by 1840 with the exception of the Aldabran giant tortoise on the island atoll of Aldabra. Although some remnant individuals of A. g. hololissa and A. g. arnoldi may remain in captivity, in recent times, these have all been reduced as subspecies of A. gigantea.
This article is one of a series providing information about endemism among birds in the world's various zoogeographic zones. For an overview of this subject see Endemism in birds.
The Seychelles warbler, also known as Seychelles brush warbler, is a small songbird found on five granitic and corraline islands in the Seychelles. It is a greenish-brown bird with long legs and a long slender bill. It is primarily found in forested areas on the islands. The Seychelles warbler is a rarity in that it exhibits cooperative breeding, or alloparenting, which means that the monogamous pair is assisted by nonbreeding female helpers.
The Malagasy kestrel, also known as the Madagascar kestrel, Malagasy spotted kestrel, Newton's kestrel, Madagascar spotted kestrel, katiti (Creole) or hitsikitsika (Malagasy), is a small bird of prey of the genus Falco. It is named after British ornithologist Edward Newton. It occurs in two subspecies on Madagascar and at Aldabra. The race from Aldabra is also called Aldabra kestrel. Its closest living relative is the Seychelles kestrel; they were at one time considered conspecific. Their common ancestors appear to have diverged very recently, probably less than 1 million years ago during the Early or Middle Pleistocene. The Mauritius kestrel is more distantly related.(Groombridge et al. 2002)
The Anjouan sparrowhawk, also known as Anjouan Island sparrowhawk, Ndzuwani goshawk or Joanna Island goshawk is a subspecies of Frances's sparrowhawk. It is endemic to the Comoros island of Anjouan. It was thought to be extinct until searches in the 1980s and in 2005 confirmed that it is still extant.
The souimanga sunbird is a small passerine bird of the sunbird family, Nectariniidae. It is native to the islands of the western Indian Ocean where it occurs on Madagascar, the Aldabra Group and the Glorioso Islands.
The Acrocephalidae are a family of oscine passerine birds, in the superfamily Sylvioidea.
Nesillas is a genus of Old World warbler in the family Acrocephalidae. Established by Harry Church Oberholser in 1899, it contains the following species:
The white-throated rail or Cuvier's rail, is a species of bird in the family Rallidae.
The Reunion giant tortoise is an extinct species of giant tortoise in the family Testudinidae. It was endemic to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.
Malcolm J. Penny is a British zoologist who is known for his ornithological field work on Aldabra and the Seychelles. In 1964 he graduated in zoology at the University of Bristol. From 1964 to 1965 he led the Bristol University Seychelles Expedition in the Indian Ocean, visited Aldabra and worked on Cousin Island. Due to Penny's efforts the ICPB bought that island in 1968 and made it protected wildlife refuge. Back to England, Penny became a conservationist with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He further made travels to Africa, India and the Arctic. Together with Constantine Walter Benson he wrote the scientific description of the Aldabra brush-warbler in 1968. Since 1994 he works as freelance writer for television companies like the BBC, the ZDF, or the ORF and he has also contributed to the Discovering Nature and Animal Kingdom wildlife book series for children.
The Wildlife of Seychelles comprises the flora and fauna of the Seychelles islands off the eastern coast of Africa in the western Indian Ocean.
The Nauru reed warbler, Acrocephalus rehsei, is a passerine bird endemic to the island of Nauru in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of only two native breeding land-birds on Nauru and it is the only passerine found on the island. It is related to other Micronesian reed warblers, all of which evolved from one of several radiations of the genus across the Pacific. Related warblers on nearby islands include the Caroline reed warbler, with which the Nauru species was initially confused, and the nightingale reed warbler, which was formerly sometimes considered the same species.
