Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was found on the island of Réunion, but it was last recorded in 1674 and is thought to have been Extinct since the end of the 17th century. Predation by introduced cats and rats is likely to have been the primary cause of its extinction.
Population justification
No extant population remains.
Trend justification
This species is considered extinct. It is known only from subfossil remains and accounts by Dubois (1674), expected to have gone extinct by the end of the 17th century due to hunting and introduced Black Rats (Rattus rattus; Hume 2017).
Nesoenas duboisi is based on Dubois' 1674 description of rusty-red pigeons from Réunion (Rothschild 1907).
Nothing is known, though it is likely to have inhabited forest.
The species was considered common in the late 1600s but appears to have rapidly become extinct (by the end of the 17th century; Hume 2017). The account by Dubois (1967) suggests the species was hunted for consumption, and R. rattus had reached plague proportions on the island by the early 1676, soon followed by cats (Hume 2011), both of which likely contributed to the rapid decline of the species (Hume 2017).
Text account compilers
Richardson, L., Brooks, T., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Reunion Pigeon Nesoenas duboisi. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/reunion-pigeon-nesoenas-duboisi on 23/11/2024.
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 23/11/2024.