Bonin thrush

Bonin thrush
Conservation status
Extinct(c.1830s)(IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Turdidae
Genus:	Zoothera
Species:	†Z. terrestris
Binomial name
†Zoothera terrestris (Kittlitz,1830)
Synonyms
Turdus terrestrisKittlitz,1830 Geocichla terrestrisBonaparte,1850 Cichlopasser terrestrisBonaparte,1854

TheBonin thrush(Zoothera terrestris), also known asKittlitz's thrushor theBonin Islands thrush,is anextinctspecies ofAsian thrush.It is sometimes separated as the only species of the genusCichlopasser.The only place where this bird was found wasChichi-jimain theOgasawara Islands;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 discovererHeinrich von Kittlitz.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 theNaturalisinLeiden(1), theNaturhistorisches MuseuminVienna(1), theSenckenbergmuseuminFrankfurt(1) and in the Zoological Museum,St. Petersburg(2).

Extinction

1828 illustration

The Bonin thrush is not among the birds observed or collected by theBeecheyPacific 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 forwhalers,settlement was begun in 1830. WhenPerry's first mission toJapancalled at Chichi-jima in 1853, they did not find the bird again, just as naturalistWilliam Stimpsonof theRodgers-RinggoldNorth Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expeditionin 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 theBonin grosbeak,the Bonin thrush probably succumbed soon after 1830 to predation by the introduced mammals andhabitat destruction.

External links

• Kittlitz, Heinrich von (1830): [Description ofZoothera terrestris].Mem. presentes a l'Acad. Imp. des Sci. de St. Petersbourg par divers savants, etc.1(3): 244, plate 17.
• 3D viewof specimen RMNH 89298 atNaturalis,Leiden (requiresQuickTimebrowser plugin).