Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Auckland Islands Merganser
| Auckland Islands Merganser | ||||||||||||||
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| Mergus australis Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841 |
The Auckland Islands Merganser (Mergus australis) was a typical merganser which is now extinct.
This duck was similar in size to the Red-breasted Merganser. The adult male had a dark reddish-brown head, crest and neck, with bluish black mantle and tail and slate grey wings. The female was slightly smaller with a shorter crest.
This bird was first collected when the French expedition led by the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville on the ships L'Astrolabe and La Zelee visited the Auckland Islands in 1840. Its decline was caused by a combination of hunting and predation by introduced mammals. The last sighting was of a pair shot on January 9, 1902.
Subsequent fossil discoveries suggest that this merganser was previously resident on South Island and Stewart Island in New Zealand.
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