This article will address the topic of Chatham rail, which represents a fundamental aspect in people's lives. Since time immemorial, Chatham rail has been the object of study, debate and reflection, due to its impact on various areas of society. Throughout history, Chatham rail has played a crucial role in the development of humanity, influencing the way people interact, think, and relate to each other. Therefore, it is essential to delve into the different aspects that Chatham rail encompasses, from its origins to its relevance today, in order to understand its importance and significance in the contemporary context.
Chatham rail | |
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Illustration by Keulemans | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: | Cabalus |
Species: | †C. modestus
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Binomial name | |
†Cabalus modestus (Hutton, 1872)
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Synonyms | |
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The Chatham rail (Cabalus modestus) is an extinct flightless species of bird in the family Rallidae. It was endemic to Chatham, Mangere and Pitt Islands, in the Chatham archipelago of New Zealand. The Chatham rail was first discovered on Mangere in 1871, and 26 specimens collected there are known from museum collections. Its Māori name was "mātirakahu".
The Chatham rail and the Dieffenbach's rail, both extinct and flightless, were sympatric on the Chatham Islands. Their sympatry suggests parallel evolution after separate colonisation of the Chatham Islands by different rail ancestors. A genetic analysis from 1997 suggested that the two were sister taxa. However more recent genetic analysis finds them to not be closely related within the Gallirallus radiation, with a 2014 analysis finding the Chatham rail being sister taxon to the possibly extinct New Caledonian rail instead.
It became extinct on the island between 1896 and 1900. The species is also known from 19th century bones from Chatham and Pitt Islands. It is likely to have occurred in scrubland and tussock grass. Its extinction was presumably caused by predation by rats and cats (which were introduced in the 1890s), habitat destruction to provide sheep pasture (which destroyed all the island's bush and tussock grass by 1900), and from grazing by goats and rabbits. On Chatham and Pitt Islands, Olson has suggested that its extinction resulted from competition with the larger Dieffenbach's rail (also extinct), but this has been refuted later when the two species have been shown to have been sympatric on Mangere.