Great O‘ahu Crake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Great O'ahu Crake | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservation status | ||||||||||||||
|
Extinct (Early 1000s)
|
||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Porzana ralphorum (Olson, 1973) |
||||||||||||||
 Island of O'ahu.
|
The Great O'ahu Rail or Great O'ahu Crake(Porzana ralphorum) is an extinct bird species from O'ahu, one of two flightless rails which have survived on that island until the arrival of people in 200 C.E.
It was the larger of two species of Rail found on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii. There were several specimens of this bird found in early settlements. It was 1 1/2 feet tall and had a beak that was an inch long and a neck that was nine inches long. It was probably a brown ,grey, black bird like its recently exinct relitives the Hawaiian and Laysan Rails. It was a flight less bird due to its small wings that were on average less than three inches long.
It probably feed on the fruits, leaves, and flowers of trees that fell onto the ground.
It cause of extiction is not very well known but we can speculte that it was hunted for meat, and its bones and feathers were used in old style art. It may have also have been attacked by polynesion mice that were brought by the natives by accident.
[edit] External links
- BirdLife International (2004). Porzana ralphorum. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 9 November 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is extinct
 |
This Gruiformes-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
