The Bonin thrush (''Zoothera terrestris''), also known as Kittlitz's thrush or the Bonin Islands thrush, is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species of

Asian thrush The Asian thrushes are medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus ''Zoothera'' of the thrush family, Turdidae. Taxonomy The genus ''Zoothera'' was introduced in 1832 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Vigors to accommodate ...

. It is sometimes separated as the only species of the genus ''Cichlopasser''. The only place where this bird was found was

Chichi-jima is the largest and most populous island in the Japanese archipelago of Bonin or Ogasawara Islands. Chichijima is about north of Iwo Jima. in size, the island is home to about 2,120 people (2021). Connected to the mainland only by a day-lon ...

in the

Ogasawara Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total area of but only two of the islands are permanen ...

; it might conceivably have inhabited Anijima and Otōtojima, but this has not been borne out by observations or specimens. The species was only once observed by a naturalist, its discoverer

Heinrich von Kittlitz Friedrich Heinrich, Freiherr von Kittlitz (16 February 1799 – 10 April 1874) was a Prussian artist, naval officer, explorer and naturalist. He was a descendant of a family of old Prussian nobility ("Freiherr" meaning "independent lord" - ranking ...

. He encountered the thrush in the coastal woods where it usually kept to the ground; it may have been ground-nesting. The only specimens ever taken are in the

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center () is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Although its current name and organization are relatively ...

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

(1), the

Naturhistorisches Museum The Natural History Museum Vienna () is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museums and non-university research institutions in Austria and an important center of excellence for all matt ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

(1), the Senckenbergmuseum in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

(1) and in the Zoological Museum,

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

(2).

Extinction

The Bonin thrush is not among the birds observed or collected by the Beechey Pacific expedition which called at Chichi-jima in 1827. It was only found the following year, when Kittlitz took the five specimens; he considered them common enough around the landing site. It is unknown why Beechey's expedition, which landed at the same location, did not find them. Following the suggestion of two shipwrecked sailors (who were picked up by Beechey in 1827) that the island would make a good stopover station for

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

s, settlement was begun in 1830. When

Perry Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Austral ...

's first mission to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

called at Chichi-jima in 1853, they did not find the bird again, just as naturalist

William Stimpson William Stimpson (February 14, 1832 – May 26, 1872) was an American scientist. He was interested particularly in marine biology. Stimpson became an important early contributor to the work of the Smithsonian Institution and later, director o ...

of the

Rodgers Rodgers is a patronymic surname deriving from the given name of " Rodger" commonly used by the Normans and meaning "son of Rodger". Variant form of Rogers. The name Rodger is of Old German origin and is likely derived from the Germanic name Hrod ...

- Ringgold

North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, also known as the Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition was a United States scientific and exploring project from 1853 to 1856. Commander Cadwalader Ringgold (1802–1867) led the expedition until ...

in the following year. Instead, they encountered rats and feral goats, sheep, dogs and cats (feral pigs were already found by Kittlitz and may have been left by Beechey to provision possible future castaways). Just like the Bonin grosbeak, the Bonin thrush probably succumbed soon after 1830 to predation by the introduced mammals and

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

References

External links

* Kittlitz, Heinrich von (1830): escription of ''Zoothera terrestris'' ''Mem. presentes a l'Acad. Imp. des Sci. de St. Petersbourg par divers savants, etc.'' 1(3): 244, plate 17.
3D view
of specimen RMNH 89298 at

, Leiden (requires

QuickTime QuickTime (or QuickTime Player) is an extensible multimedia architecture created by Apple, which supports playing, streaming, encoding, and transcoding a variety of digital media formats. The term ''QuickTime'' also refers to the QuickTime Pla ...

browser plugin). {{Taxonbar, from=Q834483 Bonin thrush Endemic birds of Japan Extinct birds of Oceania Natural history of the Bonin Islands Bird extinctions since 1500 Bonin thrush Taxa named by Heinrich von Kittlitz