Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was known from the Society Islands, French Polynesia, but has been driven Extinct by cat and rat predation. It was abundant on Tahiti in 1844 but had disappeared by the end of the century, surviving on Mehetia where there were records until the the 1930s.
Population justification
None remain.
Hypotaenidia pacifica is known only from Georg Forster's painting from Tahiti, French Polynesia, in the British Museum London (Knox and Walters 1994), from James Cook's second voyage in 1773, although there were reports from Tahiti until 1844, and from the nearby Mehetia until the 1930s (Bruner 1972).
Nothing is known.
It was flightless, and its extinction was presumably caused by introduced cats and rats (Bruner 1972, Hume 2017).
Text account compilers
Vine, J.
Contributors
Brooks, T., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S. & Martin, R.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Tahiti Rail Hypotaenidia pacifica. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/tahiti-rail-hypotaenidia-pacifica on 20/12/2024.
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 20/12/2024.