Lyall's wren

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Lyall's wren
XenicusInsularisKeulemans.jpg
1895 illustration by John Keulemans
Status iucn3.1 EX.svg
Extinct  (1895?)  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Acanthisittidae
Genus: Traversia
Rothschild, 1894
Species:
T. lyalli
Binomial name
Traversia lyalli
Rothschild, 1894

Lyall's wren or the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli) was a small, flightless passerine belonging to the family Acanthisittidae, the New Zealand wrens. Now extinct, it was once found throughout New Zealand, but when it came to the attention of scientists in 1894, its last refuge was Stephens Island in Cook Strait. Often claimed to be a species driven extinct by a single creature (a lighthouse keeper's cat named Tibbles), the wren in fact fell victim to the island's numerous feral cats. [lower-alpha 1] [2] The wren was described almost simultaneously by both Walter Rothschild and Walter Buller. It became extinct shortly thereafter.

Contents

Taxonomy

The bird's scientific name commemorates the assistant lighthouse keeper, David Lyall, who first brought the bird to the attention of science. It was described as a distinct genus, Traversia, in honour of naturalist and curio dealer Henry H. Travers, who procured many specimens from Lyall. Traversia is a member of the family Acanthisittidae, or the New Zealand wrens – which are not wrens but a similar-looking lineage of passerines, [3] originating in the Oligocene, and the sister group to all other songbirds. DNA analysis has confirmed that T. lyalli, the only member of its genus, is the oldest and most distinct lineage in the Acanthisittidae. [4]

Description

Lyall's wren had olive-brown plumage with a yellow stripe through the eye. Its underside was grey in females and brownish-yellow in males and its body feathers were edged with brown. [5]

Most distinctively, Lyall's wren was flightless, with a reduced keel on its breastbone and short rounded wings. [5] It is the best known of the five flightless passerines (songbirds) known to science, [6] all of which were inhabitants of islands and are now extinct. The others were three other New Zealand wrens (the long-billed wren and the two species of stout-legged wren) and the long-legged bunting from Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, all of which were only recently discovered as fossils and became extinct in prehistoric times.

Living Lyall's wrens were seen only twice. The lighthouse keeper described the 'rock wren', as he called it, as almost nocturnal, "running around the rocks like a mouse and so quick in its movements that he could not get near enough to hit it with a stick or stone". [5]

Distribution

Stephens Island as seen from D'Urville Island Stephens Island (Takapourewa).jpg
Stephens Island as seen from D'Urville Island

Historically, Lyall's wren was found only on Stephens Island. Prehistorically, it had been widespread throughout New Zealand before the land was settled by the Māori. [7] [8] [9] Its bones can be found in caves and deposits left by laughing owls on both main islands. [7] Its disappearance from the mainland was probably due to predation by the Polynesian rat or kiore (Rattus exulans), which had been introduced by the Māori. [10] The presence of a flightless bird on an island 3.2 km from the mainland, along with Hamilton's frog (Leiopelma hamiltoni), which can be killed by exposure to salt water, may seem puzzling, but Stephens Island was connected to the rest of New Zealand during the last glaciation when sea levels were lower.

Extinction

Lyall's wrens by John Gerrard Keulemans Stephens Island Wren.png
Lyall's wrens by John Gerrard Keulemans
1905 illustration of a female and male, by Keulemans Xenicus lyalli.jpg
1905 illustration of a female and male, by Keulemans

Much of what is commonly assumed to be established knowledge about this species' extinction is either wrong or has been misinterpreted, starting with the account by Rothschild (1905) who claimed that a single cat had killed all of the birds. [11] The research of Galbreath and Brown (2004) and Medway (2004) has uncovered much of the actual history of the bird during the short time that it was known to researchers. [12] [13]

Considering Buller's August 1895 note, it is probable that the species was exterminated by feral cats during the winter of 1895. Assuming the date of February 1894 for cat introduction was correct (there were certainly cats around in the winter months of that year), the winter of 1895 would see the second generation of cats born on the island reaching an age where the wren would have made ideal prey. Habitat destruction, sometimes given as an additional reason for the birds' disappearance, was apparently not significant: in 1898, the island was described as heavily forested and there was little interference with habitat beyond the lighthouse and its associated buildings. Large-scale destruction of habitat started in late 1903, by which time T. lyalli was certainly extinct.

Specimens

The Carnegie Museum specimen Stephens Island Wren specimen 1.jpg
The Carnegie Museum specimen

About 16–18 specimens (excluding subfossil bones) are now known. They were collected by the lighthouse keeper's cat, by the keepers themselves and by professional collectors. [16]

In the media

See also

Notes

  1. Tibbles (and her unborn kittens) were believed to be the first cats brought to the island and most of the feral population was descended from them.

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References

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  2. "How a Single Cat Hunted to Extinction the Entire Species of Stephens Island Wren".
  3. del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Christie, D. (2004) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 9: Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails. Lynx Edicions. ISBN   84-87334-69-5.
  4. Mitchell, Kieren J.; Wood, Jamie R.; Llamas, Bastien; McLenachan, Patricia A.; Kardailsky, Olga; Paul Scofield, R.; Worthy, Trevor H.; Cooper, Alan (2016). "Ancient mitochondrial genomes clarify the evolutionary history of New Zealand's enigmatic acanthisittid wrens". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 102: 295–304. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.038. ISSN   1055-7903. PMID   27261250.
  5. 1 2 3 Southey, I. (2013). Miskelly, C. M. (ed.). "Lyall's Wren". New Zealand Birds Online. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
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  7. 1 2 Worthy, T.H.; Holdaway, R.N. (1994). "Scraps from an owl's table—predator activity as a significant taphonomic process newly recognised from New Zealand Quaternary deposits". Alcheringa. 18 (3): 229–245. Bibcode:1994Alch...18..229W. doi:10.1080/03115519408619497.
  8. Millener, P.R. (1984). "New Zealand theses in Earth Sciences: The Quaternary avifauna of the North Island, New Zealand. PhD, 1981. University of Auckland, 2 vols.. (abstract)". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 27: 99–100.
  9. Millener, P.R. (1988) "Contributions to New Zealand's Late Quaternary avifauna I: Pachyplichas, a new genus of wren (Aves: Acanthisittidae), with two new species." Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand18(#4): 383–406
  10. Tyrberg, T.; Milberg, P. (1991). "Xenicus lyalli exterminated by Polynesia's rats and lighthouse keeper's cats". Var Fagelvarld. 505: 15–18.
  11. Rothschild, W. (1905) "On extinct and vanishing birds". Proceedings of the 4th International Ornithological Congress, London: 191–217.
  12. Galbreath, R. & Brown, D. (2004) The tale of the lighthouse-keeper's cat: Discovery and extinction of the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli). Notornis, 51(#4): 193–200. http://notornis.osnz.org.nz/system/files/Notornis_51_4_193.pdf
  13. Medway, D.G. (2004). "The land bird fauna of Stephens Island, New Zealand in the early 1890s, and the cause of its demise". Notornis. 51: 201–211.
  14. Rothschild, Walter (1894): A new species from Stephens Island. Bull. B. O. C. 4(#22): 10.
  15. Rothschild, Walter (1895): Notes on Xenicus lyalli. Ibis 7(#1): 268–269.
  16. Worthy, Trevor H.; Holdaway, Richard N. (2002). The Lost World of the Moa. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. pp. 426–427. ISBN   0-253-34034-9.
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