Aythya sp. nov. 'Réunion'
Réunion pochard, Mascarene Islands pochard
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Aythya cf. innotata?; Aythya sp. Mourer-Chauviré et al. 1999:20
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Holocene (1687? 1710?)
Subfossil material was reported by (Mourer-Chauviré et al. 1999:20) which belongs to an undescribed [i]Aythya[/i] species. Only two possible historical records of this species exist, in both instances an ambiguous mention of 'ducks and teal' on Réunion in 1687 and 1710 respectively (Bernardin, 1687; Boucher, 1710). Hume & Walters (2012:51) were only aware of the 1710 report by Boucher, in contrast to the two different reports mentioned by (Hume, 2013:208).
Distribution & Habitat
Réunion, Mascarene Islands
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Bernardin, P. (1687). Mémoire du R.P.Bernardin sur I’lle de Bourbon (1687). In: Lougnon, A. (ed). Receuil trimestriel de documents et travaux inédits pour servir à l’histoire des Mascareignes françaises, 4: 57-70 (1939).
Boucher, A. (1710). Mémoire d’Antoine Boucher sur I’lle Bourbon en 1710. – In: Lougnon, A. (ed). Receuil trimestriel de documents et travaux inédits pour servir à l’histoire des Mascareignes françaises, 5: 279-355 (1941).
Faurby, Søren, Matthews, Tom J., Triantis, Kostas A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2026). Quantifying the unrecorded loss of avian phylogenetic diversity. Ecography 2026: e08267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08267
Hume, Julian Pender. (2013). A synopsis of the pre-human avifauna of the Mascarene Islands, pp. 195-237. In: Göhlich, U.B. & Kroh, A. (eds.). Proceedings of the 8th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution. Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien.
Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.
Matthews, Thomas J., Triantis, Kostas A., Wayman, Joseph P., Martin, Thomas E., Hume, Julian P., Cardoso, Pedro, Faurby, Søren, Mendenhall, Chase D., Dufour, Paul, Rigal, François, Cooke, Rob, Whittaker, Robert J., Pigot, Alex L., Thébaud, Christophe, Jørgensen, Maria Wagner, Benavides, Eva, Soares, Filipa C., Ulrich, Werner, Kubota, Yasuhiro, Sadler, Jon P., Tobias, Joseph A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2024). The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions. Science 386(6717): 55-60. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk7898 [Supplementary Materials; Dryad dataset; Zenodo codeset]
Matthews, Thomas J., Wayman, Joseph P., Cardoso, Pedro, Sayol, Ferran, Hume, Julian P., Ulrich, Werner, Tobias, Joseph A., Soares, Filipa C., Thébaud, Christophe, Martin, Thomas E. and Triantis, Kostas A. (2022). Threatened and extinct island endemic birds of the world: Distribution, threats and functional diversity. Journal of Biogeography 49(11): 1920-1940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14474 [Appendix S1 (.docx); Appendix S2 (.pdf)]
Mourer-Chauviré, C., Bour, R., Ribes, S. & Moutou, F. (1999). The Avifauna of Réunion Island (Mascarene Islands) at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans. – In: Olson, S. (ed): Avian Paleontology at the Close of the 20th Century: Proceedings of the 4th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution, Washington, D.C., 4-7 June 1996. – Smithsonian contributions to paleobiology, 89: 1-38.
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]