Dromaius baudinianus

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Kingdom Animalia (animals)

Kangaroo Island Emu (Dromaius peroni = Dromaius baudinianus) by the Dutch bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912). This image was published in Lionel Walter Rothschild's book 'Extinct birds' from 1907. This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the European Union, Canada, the United States and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

Phylum Chordata (chordates)
Class Aves (birds)
Order Casuariiformes (emus and cassowaries)
Family Dromaiidae (emus)
Genus Dromaius
Species Dromaius baudinianus
Authority Parker, 1984
 
English Name Kangaroo Island Emu
Dutch Name Kangoeroe-eilandemoe
Finnish Name Kengurusaarenemu
French Name Émeu de Baudin
German Name Känguruhinsel-Emu
Hungarian Name Kenguru-szigeti Emu
Portuguese Name Emu-da-ilha-Canguru
Spanish Name Emú de Isla Canguro
 
Synonyms Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenianus (Jennings,1828); Dromaius novaehollandiae baudinianus (Parker, 1984); Dromaius peroni Rothschild, 1907.
 
Taxonomy After Jouanin (1959) demonstrated that all birds were on Kangaroo Island were from King Island it became widely assumed that the populations were conspecific. Parker (1984) showed that this was not the case and named the Kangaroo Island Emu: Dromaius baudinianus. Both populations were previously seen as subspecies of Dromaius novaehollandiae, the emu. Nowadays, Dromaius novaehollandiae (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into D. novaehollandiae, D. ater and D. baudinianus following Christidis and Boles (1994). (BirdLife International 2004)
 
Range & Habitat This emu species was endemic to Kangaroo Island, off South Australia, Australia (Stattersfield et al. 1998). Peron, who visited the island in 1802-1803 with captain Baudin, wrote that the species inhabited “the innermost recesses of the woods” but would visit the shoreline in the afternoon (Howchin 1926). (BirdLife International 2004)
 
History & Population The Kangaroo Island Emu was seen during the French naval expedition to Australia under the command of Nicholas Baudin, between 1800 and 1804. The English captain Matthew Flinders, who was in command of Investigator, met up with Baudin in 1802. Both men had been sent by their governments on separate expeditions to map the unknown southern coastline of Australia. Flinders reported the to be quite common around Nepean Bay. Writing in 1837, Leigh reported that these birds had not been seen for 10 years, so probably the species became extinct around 1827. (BirdLife International 2004; Fuller 2000; Wikipedia contributors 2007)
 
Extinction Causes A settler, along with sailors and whalers, apparently systematically hunted the Kangaroo Island Emu to extinction (Howchin 1926), although habitat alteration by fire may also have contributed to its demise (Marchant and Higgins 1991). (BirdLife International 2004)
 
Museum Specimens A skeleton of the Kangaroo Island Emu can be found in The Paris National Museum of Natural History in France. It was collected by the captain Baudin expedition in 1802-1803. There is also a mounted skin at the Geneva Museum, Switzerland, sometimes claimed as a Kangaroo Island Emu, but it may in fact be a young mainland Emu. (Wikipedia contributors 2007; BirdLife International 2004)
 
Relatives The King Island Emu Dromaius ater was its closest relative, but the species is extinct too. The closest living relative is the Emu: Dromaius novaehollandiae. One subspecies of this emu has became extinct too: the Tasmanian Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis).
 
Links

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - Dromaius baudinianus

Kangaroo Island Emu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

References

(Complete website)

 BirdLife International 2004. Dromaius baudinianus. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 22 January 2007.

Fuller, E. 2000. Extinct birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Howchin, W. (1926) Some references to the literature concerning the extinct emus of Kangaroo Island and elsewhere. S. Aust. Ornithol. 8: 244-253.

Jouanin, C. (1959) Les emeus de l'Expedition Baudin. L'Oiseau et R.F.O. 29: 169-203.

Marchant, S. and Higgins, P. J., eds (1991) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, 1: ratites to ducks. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Parker, S. A. (1984) The extinct Kangaroo Island Emu, a hitherto-unrecognized species. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 104: 19-22.

Sibley, C. G. and Monroe, B. L. (1990) Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. New Haven, USA: Yale University Press.

Sibley, C. G. and Monroe, B. L. (1993) A supplement to 'Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world'. New Haven, USA: Yale University Press.

Stattersfield, A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. J. and Wege, D. C. (1998) Endemic bird areas of the world: priorities for bird conservation. Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLife International (BirdLife Conservation Series 7).

Wikipedia contributors, 2007, "Kangaroo Island Emu," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kangaroo_Island_Emu&oldid=98876593 (accessed January 22, 2007).

Last updated: 25th December 2008.

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