The New Zealand raven (''Corvus moriorum'') 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

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...

that was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It went extinct in the 16th century.

Taxonomy

There were three

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

: the North Island raven (''Corvus moriorum antipodum''), South Island raven (''Corvus moriorum pycrafti''), and Chatham raven (''Corvus moriorum moriorum'') from the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approxima ...

. 2017 genetic research determined that the three raven populations were subspecies rather than separate species, having only split 130,000 years ago. DNA evidence suggests that its closest relatives are in the clade containing the forest raven,

little raven The little raven (''Corvus mellori'') is a species of the family Corvidae that is native to southeastern Australia. An adult individual is about in length, with completely black plumage, beak, and legs; as with all Australian species of ''Corv ...

and

Australian raven The Australian raven (''Corvus coronoides'') is a passerine Corvidae, corvid bird native to Australia. Measuring in length, it has an all-black plumage, beak and mouth, as well as strong, greyish-black legs and feet. The upperparts of its body ...

, from which it split around 2 million years ago. A reconstruction of the raven is in the

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

, specimen MNZ S.036749.

Distribution and habitat

The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of the South Island raven is in the collection of the

. A late

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

fossil bone of ''Corvus antipodum'' was found on

Enderby Island Enderby Island is part of New Zealand's uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago, south of mainland New Zealand. It is situated just off the northern tip of Auckland Island, the largest island in the archipelago. Geography and geology Enderby ...

in 1964 by New Zealand biologist Elliot Dawson. It is the only authentic record of a corvid in the

Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands ( Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island ...

and is thought to represent an individual bird that reached the Auckland Islands as a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

Description

The Chatham raven was significantly larger than the New Zealand raven, and probably the world's fourth- or fifth-largest

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

. They had long, broad bills that were not as arched as those of some of the

Hawaiian crow The Hawaiian crow or alalā (''Corvus hawaiiensis'') is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae, that is currently extinct in the wild, though reintroduction programs are underway. It is about the size of the carrion crow at in length, ...

(''C. hawaiiensis''). Presumably, they were black all over like all their close relatives. There do not seem to be recorded oral traditions of this subspecies – most of the

Moriori The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands ( in Moriori language, Moriori; in Māori language, Māori). Moriori are Polynesians who came from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 AD, which was close to the time of the ...

people, after whom this subspecies was named, were eventually killed or enslaved by

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

explorers, and little of their

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

knowledge has been preserved. Thus, it cannot be completely ruled out that like some congeners, such as the

pied raven The pied raven (''Corvus corax varius'' morpha ''leucophaeus'') is an extinct colour morph of the North Atlantic subspecies of the common raven that was only found on the Faroe Islands. The last confirmed record was in 1902. The pied raven had l ...

, they had partially white or grey plumage.

Ecology

Remains of New Zealand ravens are most common in

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

and

coastal sites. On the coast, it may have frequented the seal and

penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

colonies or fed in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...

, as does the Tasmanian forest raven (''C. tasmanicus''). It may also have depended on fruit, like the

New Caledonian crow The New Caledonian crow (''Corvus moneduloides'') is a medium-sized member of the family Corvidae, native to New Caledonia. The bird is often referred to as the 'qua-qua' due to its distinctive call. It eats a wide range of food, including many t ...

(''C. moneduloides''), but it is difficult to understand why a fruit eater would have been most common in coastal forest and shrubland when fruit was distributed throughout the forest.

Gallery

File:MA I061788 TePapa Corvus-antipodum-pycrafti full.jpg, ''Corvus antipodum pycrafti'' holotype File:Corvus antipodum (AM LB9237).jpg, ''Corvus antipodum'' bones collected from the Aupouri Peninsula File:MA I360025 TePapa Corvus-antipodum-pycrafti full.jpg, Underside view of ''Corvus antipodum pycrafti'' skull File:MA I360023 TePapa Corvus-antipodum-pycrafti full.jpg, Skull of ''Corvus antipodum pycrofti''

References

External links

''New Zealand Raven. Corvus antipodum.''
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006
The Extinction Website

''Chatham Islands Raven. Corvus moriorum.''
by Paul Martinson. Artwork produced for the book ''Extinct Birds of New Zealand'', by Alan Tennyson, Te Papa Press, Wellington, 2006 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1892017, from2=Q1068186 Corvus Extinct birds of New Zealand Holocene extinctions Late Quaternary prehistoric birds Ravens