Justification of Red List category
This species is known from New Caledonia's Grande Terre, but has not been recorded since 1860 and is now Extinct. Hunting and invasive species were the principal drivers of its decline.
Population justification
No extant population remains.
Porphyrio kukwiedei is known only from subfossil remains from New Caledonia (to France). However, a passage from Verreaux and des Murs written in 1860 notes the presence of birds the size of turkeys in marshy areas, and so it is possible that the species survived into the 19th century (Balouet and Olson 1989).
It probably inhabited marshland.
Hunting and the depredations of introduced predators are likely to have driven it to extinction.
Text account compilers
Vine, J.
Contributors
Brooks, T., Khwaja, N. & Mahood, S.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: New Caledonia Gallinule Porphyrio kukwiedei. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/new-caledonia-gallinule-porphyrio-kukwiedei on 27/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 27/11/2024.