Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was known from St Helena, but is now Extinct. It is likely to have been driven to extinction by introduced predators, over-hunting, and deforestation soon after the island was discovered in 1502.
Population justification
No extant population remains.
Trend justification
Little is known about this species. It is known only from subfossil bones, and became extinct sometime after 1502, likely a few decades after human settlement due to deforestation, over-hunting and introduced animals (Hume 2017).
Zapornia astrictocarpus is only known from subfossil bones from St Helena (to UK) (Hume 2017).
Nothing is known about the ecology of this species. It likely scavenged amongst seabird colonies similar to the Laterallus podarces (Hume 2017).
The species reportedly became extinct due to over-hunting, deforestation, and introduced animals (Hume 2017). Predation by Fregata sp. is also conjectured to have been a threat to this species (Hume 2017), as is the predation of its eggs and young by Laterallus podarces (Olson 1973, Rowland et al. 1998).
Text account compilers
Khwaja, N., Mahood, S., Brooks, T., Richardson, L.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Saint Helena Crake Zapornia astrictocarpus. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/saint-helena-crake-zapornia-astrictocarpus on 22/12/2024.
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 22/12/2024.