| Dromaius
novaehollandiae diemenensis |
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| Kingdom | Animalia |
No Image |
| Phylum | Chordata | |
| Class | Aves (birds) | |
| Order | Casuariiformes
(emus and cassowaries) |
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| Family | Dromaiidae
(emus) |
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| Genus | Dromaius | |
| Species | Dromaius novaehollandiae | |
| Subspecies | Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis | |
| Authority | (Le Souëf, 1907) | |
| English Name | Tasmanian Emu | |
| Dutch Name | Tasmaanse Emoe | |
| Finnish Name | Tasmanian Emu | |
| French Name | Émeu Tasmanienne | |
| German Name | Tasmanien-Emu | |
| Italian Name | Emù della Tasmania | |
| Portuguese Name | Emu-da-Tasmânia | |
| Spanish Name | Emú de Tasmania | |
| Swedish Name | Tasmansk Emu | |
| Synonyms | Dromaius diemenensis Le Souëf, 1907; Dromiceius novaehollandiae gunni Mathews, 1922 | |
| Characteristics | The Tasmanian Emu was reportedly a large emu with dark feathers. The body type was similar to that of the south-eastern Emu, Dromaius novaehollandiae novaehollandiae (American Emu Association 2005). It had a whitish instead of black foreneck and throat and an unfeathered neck (Wikipedia contributors 2007). | |
| Range & Habitat |
It was found on the Australian island of Tasmania. (American Emu Association 2005) |
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| History & Population | The Tasmanian Emu has been isolated from the mainland Emu since the Late Pleistocene. Unlike to the King Island Emu and Kangaroo Island Emu, this emu subspecies hadn't become smaller due to insular dwarfism. Insular dwarfism is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals, when their population is limited to primarily small islands. The Tasmanian Emu survived along with the native people, the Tasmanian Aborigines, until the Europeans arrived. The first reported sighting of Tasmania by an European was on 24 November 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. The first penal European settlement was established by the British in 1803 at what is now Hobart. The European settlers destroyed the Emu's habitat for agriculture and hunted the birds as a pest. The Tasmanian Emu became eventually extinct around 1850. Whether a sight record in 1865 and captive specimens that died in 1873 were of this subspecies is not known with certainty. (Wikipedia contributors 2007; American Emu Association 2005) | |
| Extinction Causes | The Tasmanian emu was, as the mainland birds, hunted as a pest. In addition, the practice of setting fire to grassland and shrubland to aid in claiming land for agriculture deprived the birds of habitat. (Wikipedia contributors 2007) | |
| Reintroduction | Mainland Emu were introduced after the disappearance of the Tasmanian Emu (and possibly even when the last birds of the Tasmanian subspecies were still around, hybridising them out of existence), but the history of emu introductions on Tasmania is not sufficiently documented. (Wikipedia contributors 2007) | |
| Museum Specimens | It is known that in 1838, 2 skin specimens were received by the British Museum. The specimens on the British Museum belonged to a collection which was suffering from bad preparation and/or storage in 1906 already, and they could not be located in 1959. A supposed third specimen in Frankfurt is erroneously attributed to this subspecies (Steinbacher, 1959). Today, it is apparently only known from subfossil bones. (Wikipedia contributors 2007) | |
| Relatives | The closest living relative is the South-eastern Emu, Dromaius novaehollandiae novaehollandiae. Besides this Emu subspecies it is related to the other two surviving subspecies: the South-western Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae rotschildi and the Northern Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae woodwardi. Two Emu species that were restricted to islands as well have also become extinct, namely the King Island Emu Dromaius ater and the Kangaroo Island Emu Dromaius baudinianus. | |
| Links | ||
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References |
American
Emu Association. 2005. About Dromaius Novaehollandiae. Facts for the Emu
Farmer. Available
online (pdf).
Le Souef, William Henry Dudley (1907): Description of Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis. Bull. Brit. Ornithol. Club 21: 13. Steinbacher, Joachim (1959): Weitere Angaben über ausgestorbene, aussterbende und seltene Vögel im Senckenberg-Museum. Senckenbergiana Biologica 40(1/2): 1-14. [Article in German] Wikipedia contributors, "Tasmanian Emu," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tasmanian_Emu&oldid=76704683 (accessed January 22, 2007). |
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Last
updated: 23rd January 2007. This page is a part of The Extinction Website. © 2000-2009. |
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