Dromaius ater

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Kingdom Animalia (animals)

Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans (1842-1912). 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)
Authority (Vieillot, 1817)
 
English Name Dwarf Emu, King Island Emu  
Dutch Name King-eilandemoe, Zwarte Emoe, Koningseiland Emoe
Finnish Name Mustaemu
French Name Émeu noir  
German Name Schwarzer Emu
Hungarian Name Fekete Emu
Italian Name Emù nero
Portuguese Name Emu-da-ilha-Rei
Spanish Name El Emú de Isla Rey
 
Synonyms Dromaius novaehollandiae minor Spencer, 1906; Dromaius bassi Legge, 1907; Dromaius spenceri (partim) Mathews, 1912; Dromaius novaehollandiae ater Vieillot, 1817.
 
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)
 
Characteristics The black feathered King Island Emu was the smallest species of emu. Fully grown it was 1,4 meter (4,5 feet) tall and weighed under 27 kilograms (60 pounds). (American Emu Association 2005)
 
Range & Habitat This emu species was endemic to King Island in the Bass Strait, Australia (Stattersfield et al. 1998). It was reported to prefer the shady margins of lagoons and the shoreline. (BirdLife International 2004)
 
History & Population During the French naval expedition to Australia under the command of Nicholas Baudin, between 1800 and 1804, living King Island Emus were captured alive by the French naturalist François Péron. Some of these captives died during their long journey to Europe. At least two arrived alive and were send to the residence of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais (the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte). They survived until 1822 and at the time of their dead they may have been the very last of their kind. Another individual, collected in 1802 and possibly dead on arrival, was sent to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, France. It seems that this individual provided the only remaining skin in Paris (Jouanin 1959). It is certain that the King Island Emu disappeared during the first decades of the nineteenth century. (BirdLife International 2004; Fuller 2000)
 
Extinction Causes The extinction of this bird was presumably a result of being hunted by sealers for food (Marchant and Higgins 1991). (BirdLife International 2004)
 
Museum Specimens Numerous skeletal remains have been found (BirdLife International 2004), but only one skin exists as far as I know. This skin was collected by Baudin in 1802, and is now in the Paris National Museum of Natural History in France or in French Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN). The naturalised skin of this species is the most invaluable specimen of the ornithological collections of the Paris National Museum of Natural History. It cannot be exposed to the public. The Musei Universitari Torino in Italy claims to have a mounted specimen too. Please contact me if you know more!
 
Relatives The Kangaroo Island Emu Dromaius baudinianus 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 ater

King Island Emu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

References

(Complete website)

 American Emu Association. 2005. About Dromaius Novaehollandiae. Facts for the Emu Farmer. Available online (pdf).

BirdLife International 2004. Dromaius ater. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 20 January 2007.

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

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).

Last updated: 23rd January 2007.

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