| Gallicolumba
ferruginea
|
HOME |
| |
| Kingdom |
Animalia |
Tanna
Ground Dove, pained by George Forster. In
its margin is written: Tanna, female, 17th August 1774. 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 |
| Class |
Aves |
| Order |
Columbiformes
|
| Family |
Columbidae
|
| Genus |
Gallicolumba |
| Species |
Gallicolumba
ferruginea |
| Authority |
(Forster,
1844) |
| |
| English
Name |
Tanna
Ground Dove, Forster's Dove of Tanna |
| Dutch
Name |
Tanna-patrijsduif |
| French
Name |
Gallicolombe de Tanna |
| German
Name |
Tanna-Erdtaube |
| Spanish Name |
Paloma Perdiz de Tana |
| |
| Synonyms |
Columba
ferruginea Wagler 1829 |
| |
| Taxonomy |
The taxonomic
authority is often given as Wagler (1829). However, although Forster's Descriptiones…
was finally printed in 1844, some time after Wagler's treatise, the
original description was written in 1775 and thus predates Wagler. (Wikipedia
contributors 2008) Although E. Mayr considers it "far more likely
that the bird came from The Tonga Islands. The description fits that of
the Shy Ground Dove Gallicolumba stairi with a few minor
discrepancies", Goodwin (1967) asserts the specific status of the taxon. (BirdLife
International 2004) |
| |
| Characteristics |
The
Tanna Ground Dove's head and breast are rusty brown. Its back is dark
reddish purple. The wings are dark green in colour, but the primaries are
brownish grey with narrow pale edges. The abdomen is grey. Its bill was
black with slightly swollen cere. The eye's iris is yellowish and the feet
are red. It had a body size of about 27 cm (11 in). (Fuller 2000; Day
1981) According to Stresemann (1950) the specimen collected by Forster was
probably a male, not a female as stated. |
| |
| Food |
Indirectly
Forster gives us a detail concerning the Tanna Ground Dove's diet. He does
this by telling how he first discovered the wild nutmeg of Tanna 'without
ever being able to find the tree'. It was found 'in the craw of the pigeon
which we shot' (Day 1981). Nothing further is known on this bird's diet. |
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
 This
dove was endemic to the Pacific island of Tanna, Vanuatu (formerly the New
Hebrides). The Vanuatu archipelago is some 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 km (310 mi) north-east of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and south of the Solomon Islands.
(Fuller 2000; BirdLife International 2004; BirdLife International 2007;
Wikipedia contributors 2008)
Image: the left-hand map shows
the location of Vanuatu (surrounded by light blue) in the world, the
right-hand map shows the island of Tanna (coloured red) in the Vanuatu
archipelago.
|
| |
| History
& Population |
In
1774, the HMS Resolution anchored off Tanna Island during Captain
James Cook's second voyage around the world. On board were the naturalists
Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George. On 17 August 1774, Johann
Reinhold Forster noted: 'I went ashore, we shot a new Pigeon and got a few
plants and the fruit of the wild nutmeg'. This was the last time this
pigeon was seen, even the specimen obtained has long been lost. Luckily
George Forster painted this dove, one that is not assignable to any known
species. When exactly and why the Tanna Ground Dove became extinct is
unknown. (Fuller 2000) |
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
It
is not known why this species became extinct, but introduced rats are a
prime suspect (Wikipedia contributors).
|
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
There
are no museum specimens of the Tanna Ground Dove. Forster's 1774 painting
of this dove is in the Natural History Museum at Tring (Knox and Walters 1994; BirdLife International 2004; BirdLife
International 2007). |
| |
| Relatives |
Mayr
(1935) concluded from Forster's description that the Tanna Ground Dove is
closely related to the Santa Cruz Ground Dove Gallicolumba
sanctaecrucis. (Stresemann 1950) |
| |
| Links |
IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species: Gallicolumba
ferruginea
Tanna
Ground-dove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
| |
|
References
(Complete
website)
|
BirdLife
International 2004. Gallicolumba ferruginea. In: IUCN 2007. 2007
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 16 March 2008.
BirdLife International (2007) Species
factsheet: Gallicolumba
ferruginea. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org
on 16/3/2008.
Day, David (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals.
Ebury,
London/Viking, New York.
Fuller, Errol (2000): Extinct Birds. Oxford University
Press, Oxford, New York.
Goodwin, D. (1967) Pigeons and
doves of the world. London: British Museum (Natural History).
Knox, A.G. and Walters, M.P. (1994) Extinct and endangered birds in
the collections of the Natural History Museum. Tring, U.K.: British
Ornithologists' Club (British Ornithologists' Club Occasional Publications
No. 1).
Mayr, E. (1935) Descriptions of
twenty-five new species and subspecies: birds collected during the Whitney
South Sea Expedition XXXIII. Am. Mus. Novit. 820.
Stresemann, Erwin (1950): Birds collected during Capt. James
Cook's Last Expedition. Auk
67(1): 66-88.
Wikipedia contributors (2008), "Tanna Ground-dove," Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tanna_Ground-dove&oldid=196917588
(accessed March 16, 2008).
|
|
Last
updated: 16th April 2008.
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page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
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