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Post by sebbe67 on May 16, 2005 17:08:25 GMT
New Zealand Quail Coturnix novaezelandiae was endemic to open habitats, especially grass-covered downs, on North, South and Great Barrier Islands, New Zealand. It was considered fairly common until the mid-19th century, but declined rapidly to extinction by 1875. Extinction was initially thought to have been caused by large-scale burning, predation by dogs, cats and rats, and grazing by sheep. More recently, diseases spread by introduced gamebirds have been hypothesized to account for its rapid extinction. Taxonomy The taxon is considered by some authorities to be a race of the extant Stubble Quail P. pectoralis of Australia, but it is better treated as a full species.
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Post by another specialist on Jun 5, 2005 19:03:07 GMT
New Zealand quail Fast extinction hints at epidemic The New Zealand quail Coturnix novae-zelandiae Quoy & Gaimard, 1830 lived on North and on South Island. Although the species was still fairly common on South Island in the 1860's, it was considered extinct shortly after 1875. As Sir John Francis Julius von Haast, curator of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch wrote to the German ornithologist Otto Finsch in 1873: "You might be interested to hear from this quail, which may disappear within only a couple of years. I only know two places where it can still be found, one on the west coast and the other on a small island in the Tasman River; still it should be found in some places in Otago and Nelson". New Zealand quail  A fowl's pest Extinction was very rapid indeed. Its cause was never determined, but given the short period in which the quail disappeared, it seems likely that it was a disease spread by pheasants and quails which the Europeans introduced as game. Furthermore, these birds may have competed with the indigenous quails for food. As with so many other New Zealand species, introduced cats and ferrets may have played a role in the extinction process, but are not regarded as the primary cause here. The decline was too rapid to have been caused by carnivores while other species of quail, such as the imported Australian brown quail Synoicus ypsilophorus were thriving at the same time.  New Zealand quail Photograph by Rosamond Purcell from Swift as a Shadow. © 1999. The museum collection Specimens of the New Zealand quail are kept in a many European and American museums, as well as in Christchurch and Wellington in New Zealand. The National Museum of Natural History possesses a male and a female. They are labelled " Australia?" which obviously is an error, since the species never occurred there.  New Zealand quail Photograph by Rosamond Purcell from Swift as a Shadow. © 1999. The whole webpage from www.naturalis.nl/300pearls |
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Post by another specialist on Jun 8, 2005 9:10:43 GMT
Family/Sub-family PHASIANIDAE Species name author Quoy & Gaimard, 1830 Taxonomic source(s) Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993), Turbott (1990) Summary Coturnix novaezelandiae was endemic to open habitats, especially grass-covered downs, on North, South and Great Barrier Islands, New Zealand3. It was considered fairly common until the mid-19th century, but declined rapidly to extinction by 18751. Extinction was initially thought to have been caused by large-scale burning, predation by dogs, cats and rats, and grazing by sheep3. More recently, diseases spread by introduced gamebirds have been hypothesised to account for its rapid extinction2. www.birdlife.net/datazone/search/species_search.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=197&m=0 |
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Post by another specialist on Jun 9, 2005 18:41:48 GMT
Koreke, the New Zealand Quail An unfamiliar whirring of wings caught my attention the other evening as I disturbed a pair of brown quail, Synoicus ypsilophorus, who have, it seems, decided to move into my garden, a highly dangerous place I would have thought for quail. There have always been brown quail here but usually they stick to the tall fescue grass along the river which provides sufficient cover for them. The brown quail are of course foreigners, introduced to New Zealand as game birds in the 1860s and 1870s but the South Island liberations failed and now they are common only north of Auckland and in parts of the Bay of Plenty. They are an overall brownish colour, finely patterned with black and when scuttling for cover may be mistaken for a rat. Rougher country is preferred with places to hide although, if pressed, will fly upwards with a whir of wings before landing in cover and quickly disappearing. The california quail, Callipepla californica,the one with the little top knot, was introduced along with the brown quail, but is found in both the North and South Islands. When I first came to this valley some twenty years ago, there were many coveys of california quail here but then they suddenly disappeared until the last two years when I have again heard their distinctive "Jack Vercoe" call in the spring although have yet to actually sight them again. Both these introduced species of quail share a similar habitat of rough grassland on road and river verges which supplies good cover. The brown quail are more often seen on roadsides where they dust bathe or rest in the sun whereas the california quail are more often seen in more open rough pasture. Both, it seems, have a liking for vegetable gardens although they usually feed mainly on insects, seeds and some grasses. They make their nests which are well concealed grass lined bowls on the ground where the females incubate large clutches of eggs for about three weeks while the males guard the area, calling if danger approaches. The chicks leave the nest within a day and both male and female care for them as they grow. Stoats, weasels and cats take a heavy toll of the young although adults have been seen distracting the predators while the young get away. They are of course hunted as well by the human species, many people believing that of all the game birds, excepting perhaps pheasant, they make the best eating. Both these birds manage to survive in spite of the difficulties when our own indigenous New Zealand quail, Koreke, did not survive similar pressures and became extinct soon after European settlement. In Bullers Birds of New Zealand, there is a painting of the New Zealand quail and it does not look unlike the brown quail. Buller says, "It was excessively abundant in all the open country and especially on the grass covered downs of the South Island. The first settlers enjoyed some excellent quail shooting for several years and it is a matter of local history that Sir D. Munro and Major Richmond in 1848 shot as many as forty three brace in the course of a single day within a few miles of what is now the city of Nelson. While a Canterbury writer has recorded that in the early days, on the plains near Selwyn a bag of twenty brace of quail was not looked upon as extraordinary sport for a day's shooting". Buller also records that according to Maori, even in the North Island it was formerly very abundant, certain grassy plains, like the Murimotu in the Taupo District being noted for them. Quail preserves were often given in the Maori Land court in support of title. This extensive shooting for food and for sport undoubtedly caused severe reductions in the total population and there was also widespread burning off of the lowland tussock grassland which formed the birds main habitat. Their decline was sudden, over the course of a year or two, and in spite of the efforts of landowners to conserve the game by setting aside wide tracts of habitat, they became extinct around 1875. www.nzbirds.com/Koreke.html |
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Post by Melanie on Aug 19, 2005 20:35:41 GMT
Coturnix novaezelandiae New Zealand Quail or Koreke Nieuw-Zeelandse Kwartel (Dutch) Extinct A bird of open grasslands of New Zealand, still common by 1848, when 60 could be shot on a single day, but in 1870 already on the verge of extinction (Buller 1888). In fact, the last bird on North Island was probably seen in Dec 1869, while on South Island the last reliable observation was made in 1875, with the last birds collected in 1867 or 1868. The reasons for this disappearance are not known: excessive shooting by man and killing by introduced predators undoubtedly took a toll, as well as large scale burning of the grassland in order to make it suitable for crop cultivation or for grazing pasture, but patches of apparently suitable habitat remained long after 1870 or even increased in size due to deforestation. Probably an avian disease arriving with introduced quail, pheasants, or mosquitoes was responsible for the death of the last birds. ip30.eti.uva.nl/zma3d/detail.php?id=117&sort=taxon&type=all |
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Post by another specialist on Oct 24, 2005 21:34:42 GMT
Items in the ZMA - Probably no birds in the ZMA, even though the following bird is available:
ZMA 29111 [Female], undated [before 1880], 'New Zealand', collector unknown, "Coturnix novaezelandiae (?)", an old former mount.
See Remarks
Remarks
Probably, the locality of ZMA 29111 was added after its provisional identification as C. novaezelandiae. Indeed, when the identification-table of Ogilvie-Grant (1893) is followed, the result points to C. novaezelandiae, but our bird has a wing of 100 mm only, far below the minimum of the few known birds given in Marchant & Higgins (1993). The bird closely resembles a female of C. coturnix, but the breast shows dusky barring or scaling, the underparts are rather warm rufous (especially the under tail-coverts), and the flight-feathers are plain sepia. We lack comparative material of a number of quail species for proper identification (it is certainly not C. ypsilophorus), but it seems to fit a female of C. delegorguei from the Afrotropics best, even though it shows a rather heavily barred upper breast.
from same source as above entry
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Post by another specialist on Oct 24, 2005 21:35:59 GMT
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Post by Melanie on Nov 5, 2005 4:07:33 GMT
QUAIL, NEW ZEALAND The three species of quail now seen in this country (the widespread California quail, the Australian brown or swamp quail which is almost wholly confined to the North Island, and the American bobwhite very locally distributed in one or two parts of the North Island) are obviously not natives to New Zealand. The species of quail that was native to these islands is now extinct and has been so for approximately 90 years. It was, in fact, the second species to become extinct within European times, being preceded by Dieffenbach's rail of the Chatham Islands. Related very closely to the still surviving Australian stubble quail, the New Zealand quail was once common in parts of the North and South Islands. Being a species living mainly in grasslands, it was more abundant in the South Island on its eastern side than in the North where its distribution was far more localised. By the mid-nineteenth century the koreke, as it was known to the Maori, was already uncommon in the North Island, though at about the same time it was still abundant in parts of Nelson and Otago. By 1870 it was regarded as having been completely exterminated in the North, and five years later the South Island populations had vanished too. It seems most unlikely that hunting accounted for this quail's rapid disappearance; neither can it be said that in the early days of settlement dogs or cats were responsible. Brown rats and black rats were the only introduced predators that were widespread at the relevant period. Even nowadays, with a much greater variety of possible predators plus intensified hunting by man, the introduced species of quail – all ground nesters – are able to hold their own. Habitat and food destruction caused by burning of the natural grasslands may have been the main cause. The scientific name of the koreke was Coturnix novaezealandiae. It is just possible that a species of the Australian brown quail (Synoicus ypsilophorus) was also native to this country, but the introduction of stocks of the same species from Australia now makes confirmation difficult. www.teara.govt.nz/1966/Q/QuailNewZealand/QuailNewZealand/en |
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Post by another specialist on Nov 5, 2005 21:46:37 GMT
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Post by sebbe67 on Dec 30, 2006 14:34:13 GMT
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Post by Peter on Apr 21, 2007 9:30:49 GMT
New Zealand quail may not be as extinct as thoughtAn isolated population of quail on Tiritiri Matangi Island , could prove to be New Zealand quail – a bird considered to be extinct since about 1875. While many of New Zealand’s endangered birds have made headlines in the world famous conservation success story surrounding the Hauraki Gulf island, no one has paid much attention to the long established quail population. Now the birds are the subject of a genetic and ecological study by a Massey doctoral student who says it’s possible they may be the New Zealand quail, coturnix novaezelandiae. Once abundant throughout the country and on Great Barrier Island, these quail were thought to have been wiped out through habitat destruction and predation soon after European settlement. Mark Seabrook-Davison is part of the University’s Auckland-based Ecology and Conservation Group. With his co-researchers he has a close connection with projects on Tiritiri Matangi and says that although the quail are known to have been on the island for at least 100 years, there are no records relating to them. Genetic testing will be carried out at the Allan Wilson Centre laboratory at Albany. The samples will be compared with genetic samples from other locations and from the populations of introduced Australian quail. ‘At this stage the notion that these quail may be a surviving group of New Zealand quail is quite speculative. It’s also been suggested that they may be a hybrid,’ says Mr Seabrook-Davison. He says that the ecological study he is carrying out in conjunction with the genetic testing will also have important implications for future conservation projects in the Hauraki Gulf Islands. ‘There is keen interest in the possibility of putting these quail on to other islands. Because they are a ground bird of a particular type, they play their own part in the bigger ecological picture. They are very good at distributing seeds and tilling the leaf litter.’ Both the Australian quail and the more widespread Californian quail, were released into New Zealand as game birds. However other sources remain highly dubious about the possibility that the Tiritiri Matanagi Island birds are New Zealand Quail. Brown quail are a different genus from the extinct New Zealand quail, so hybridization is unlikely. The larger size of the New Zealand quail (twice the size of the Australian version) should be fairly obvious. The genetic testing will tell. Courtesy of Massey University. Source: www.wildlifeextra.com/zealand-quail.html.
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Post by sebbe67 on Apr 21, 2007 9:45:43 GMT
New Zealand quail may not be as extinct as thoughtAn isolated population of quail on Tiritiri Matangi Island , could prove to be New Zealand quail – a bird considered to be extinct since about 1875. While many of New Zealand’s endangered birds have made headlines in the world famous conservation success story surrounding the Hauraki Gulf island, no one has paid much attention to the long established quail population. Now the birds are the subject of a genetic and ecological study by a Massey doctoral student who says it’s possible they may be the New Zealand quail, coturnix novaezelandiae. Once abundant throughout the country and on Great Barrier Island, these quail were thought to have been wiped out through habitat destruction and predation soon after European settlement. Mark Seabrook-Davison is part of the University’s Auckland-based Ecology and Conservation Group. With his co-researchers he has a close connection with projects on Tiritiri Matangi and says that although the quail are known to have been on the island for at least 100 years, there are no records relating to them. Genetic testing will be carried out at the Allan Wilson Centre laboratory at Albany. The samples will be compared with genetic samples from other locations and from the populations of introduced Australian quail. ‘At this stage the notion that these quail may be a surviving group of New Zealand quail is quite speculative. It’s also been suggested that they may be a hybrid,’ says Mr Seabrook-Davison. He says that the ecological study he is carrying out in conjunction with the genetic testing will also have important implications for future conservation projects in the Hauraki Gulf Islands. ‘There is keen interest in the possibility of putting these quail on to other islands. Because they are a ground bird of a particular type, they play their own part in the bigger ecological picture. They are very good at distributing seeds and tilling the leaf litter.’ Both the Australian quail and the more widespread Californian quail, were released into New Zealand as game birds. However other sources remain highly dubious about the possibility that the Tiritiri Matanagi Island birds are New Zealand Quail. Brown quail are a different genus from the extinct New Zealand quail, so hybridization is unlikely. The larger size of the New Zealand quail (twice the size of the Australian version) should be fairly obvious. The genetic testing will tell. Courtesy of Massey University. Source: www.wildlifeextra.com/zealand-quail.html. Very intresting! Thanks for posting Peter. Hopefully they will show to be New Zealand quails and not a population of some introduced species. |
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Post by another specialist on Apr 21, 2007 9:51:37 GMT
Thanks Peter very interesting fingers crossed they turn out to be them and not introduced birds.  Source: www.wildlifeextra.com/zealand-quail.html. Are these the birds in question? as this photo is being used on all webpages with this news. |
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Post by Peter on Apr 21, 2007 10:35:42 GMT
I gues they are!
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Post by another specialist on Apr 21, 2007 11:16:27 GMT
They do seem to resemble the New Zealand quail images we have here on this thread.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2007 15:37:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2007 15:39:46 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2007 15:44:27 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2007 15:45:10 GMT
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Post by another specialist on Apr 21, 2007 21:32:38 GMT
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... here is something more.