Mauritius sheldgoose


The Mauritius sheldgoose, also known as the Mauritius shelduck, is an extinct species of goose from Mauritius.

Taxonomy

It was a close relative of the Egyptian goose. Known from one or two subfossil carpometacarpus bones from the Mare aux Songes swamp and a few descriptions, this bird was about the size of a brant. Its appearance is unknown, except that its wings showed the typical color pattern of shelducks. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Malagasy shelduck; in this case it would become the nominate subspecies.
Sometimes, even in scholarly sources, one can find references to a supposed "Mauritius swan" or "Mauritius comb goose". These refer to the initial misidentification of the Alopochen mauritianus bones as belonging to the genus Sarkidiornis, but as early as 1897 the true nature of this bird was realized.

Behaviour and ecology

Johannes Pretorius' 1660s report about his stay on Mauritius is the most detailed contemporary account about the behaviour of the Mauritius sheldgoose:

Extinction

Like its Réunion relative, the Mauritius sheldgoose was rapidly hunted to extinction. Still reasonably plentiful in 1681, the population collapsed soon afterwards, and Leguat found "wild geese" to be "already rare" in 1693. In 1698, governor Deodati declared it to be extinct.

Footnotes