Coenocorypha
Encyclopedia
Coenocorypha is a genus
of tiny bird
s in the sandpiper family
, also known as the New Zealand snipes, which are now only found on New Zealand's outlying islands
. There are currently six extinct species and three living species
, with the Subantarctic Snipe having three subspecies
, including the Campbell Island Snipe
discovered as recently as 1997. The genus was once distributed from Fiji
, New Caledonia
and Norfolk Island
, across New Zealand
and southwards into New Zealand's subantarctic
islands, but predation by introduced species
, especially rat
s, has drastically reduced their range.
of the genus Gallinago
is uncertain. Coenocorypha is sometimes thought to be a relict taxon of an ancient lineage; however, insufficient research has been done to prove this. The first specimen was collected from the Auckland Islands
during the voyage of HMS Erebus
and HMS Terror
and was described by George Gray
in 1845. Ten years later he assigned the species to its own genus. With the exception of the Chatham Snipe and the Forbes's Snipe (described from fossil
s found in the Chatham Islands
) all subsequent New Zealand snipe collected were assigned as subspecies to the original species, known as the New Zealand Snipe. Subspecific forms have been described from the Snares
, Little Barrier Island, Stewart Island, the Antipodes Islands
and Campbell Island.
A morphological study and comparisons of plumage
and behaviour led some authors to accept that the Snares Islands, Little Barrier Island and Stewart Island forms were all species instead of subspecies of the Auckland Island
snipe, also raising the possibility that the Antipodes Island snipe might be a separate species.
In 1997 a previously unknown form of snipe was discovered on Jacquemart Island
off Campbell Island
. The Campbell Snipe was described as another subspecies in the radiation of New Zealand snipes. Fossil remains of Coenocorypha have also now been discovered on the islands of New Caledonia
, Fiji
and Norfolk Island
. Fossil evidence has also shown that the Little Barrier Island form was once widespread across North Island
and the Stewart Island form across South Island
; both are now extinct.
snipes, although they are smaller, stockier and have relatively shorter bill
s. Overall they have long bills and short necks, wings and tails. They measure between 19–24 cm long, with wingspans of between 28–35 cm, and weigh between 75-120 g. The smallest species is the Chatham Island Snipe. Their plumage
is overall brown; most species have a dark eye stripe. The scapulars on the wings are mottled with some species having white tips.
s found by probing in the soil and in compacted vegetation. Feeding is both diurnal and nocturnal, with most hunting occurring at night and in the early morning. Bouts of feeding are characterised by continuous probing the soil with the full length of the bill. The ground is covered systematically, with about 18 holes for every 100 cm² of soil. Prey is presumably detected by touch and possibly by Herbst's corpuscles
, clusters of cells that can detect changes in pressure and have been shown to be used by other shorebirds to detect prey. Smaller prey is swallowed with the bill still probed, as the mandibles are flexible and the prey can be manipulated in the soil. Larger prey items are removed from the soil for easier manipulating and swallowing. The most common prey items taken include earthworm
s, amphipods, beetle
adults and larvae and the pupae of other insects.
) and defend territories
from other breeding pairs, although non-breeders are tolerated inside territories. Pair formation occurs some months before breeding, and males feed females as part of the courting rituals. Before breeding the male snipe also perform nocturnal aerial "hakawai" displays with calls
followed by a non-vocal roar created by diving birds driving fast moving air across the rectrices of the tail. This display is thought to be the origin of the Māori legends about the Hakawai
, a term which has been extended to refer to the aerial displays.
Both sexes choose the nesting site, although only the female builds the nest. The usual clutch size is two eggs
, laid three days apart. Incubation duties are shared between the sexes, incubation taking 22 days. Where a male has two females in its territory it will incubate at just one nest, the female at the other has to incubate alone, taking 38 days to hatch chicks.
After hatching the pair splits, with each member of the pair taking one chick and raising it. Chicks are fed for around 41 days, and stay with the parent for another 20 days after that. The chick of the Chatham Island Snipe
matures faster than the other species, is only fed for thirty days and becomes independent at 41 days. Parental care in the extinct South Island Snipe
is also thought to have been different, with studies conducted in 1923 and 1930 showing that both parents cared for a single chick. Nothing is known about the parental care of the North Island Snipe
, the Forbes's Snipe or the snipes of Fiji
, New Caledonia
or Norfolk Island
.
on oceanic islands without land mammal
s and were ecologically naive
with regard to mammalian predators. When humans arrived on the islands they lived on they brought with them Polynesian Rat
s and later larger more aggressive predators such as Black Rat
s, Stoat
s and feral cat
s. With the arrival of these predators Coenocorypha snipes quickly became extinct, with the species in Fiji, New Caledonia and Norfolk Island becoming extinct in prehistory. Around New Zealand snipes survived on rarely visited offshore islands and on the sub-Antarctic islands. The North Island Snipe survived until the arrival of European settlers, and the last South Island Snipe survived off Stewart Island until 1964, when rats reached Big South Cape Island. The island had also been the last refuge of the Bush Wren
and the New Zealand Greater Short-tailed Bat
. Attempts were made to capture some snipe (and wrens) for translocation to a safe island, but only two snipe were caught and both died two days later.
Today the remaining species are a conservation priority. Techniques to translocate snipe without killing them have been developed, and a small group of Snares Island Snipe have been established again off Stewart Island. Campbell Island Snipe have benefited from the removal
of rats from Campbell Island in 2001; they have recolonised the main island from Jacquemart Island and begun breeding there again.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of tiny bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s in the sandpiper family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
, also known as the New Zealand snipes, which are now only found on New Zealand's outlying islands
New Zealand Outlying Islands
The New Zealand outlying islands comprise nine island groups, located in the subtropics and subantarctic, which are part of New Zealand but lie outside of the New Zealand continental shelf. Although considered as integral parts of New Zealand, seven of the nine island groups are not part of any...
. There are currently six extinct species and three living species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, with the Subantarctic Snipe having three subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
, including the Campbell Island Snipe
Campbell Island Snipe
The Campbell Snipe or Campbell Island Snipe is a rare subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe, endemic to Campbell Island, a subantarctic island south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean. It was not formally described until 2009...
discovered as recently as 1997. The genus was once distributed from Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
and Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
, across New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and southwards into New Zealand's subantarctic
Subantarctic
The Subantarctic is a region in the southern hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° – 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands in the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and...
islands, but predation by introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
, especially rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s, has drastically reduced their range.
Taxonomy and range
The relationship between Coenocorypha snipe and the snipeSnipe
A snipe is any of about 25 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill and crypsis plumage. The Gallinago snipes have a nearly worldwide distribution, the Lymnocryptes Jack Snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe and the...
of the genus Gallinago
Gallinago
Gallinago is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 16 species. This genus contains the majority of the world's snipe species, the other three extant genera being Coenocorypha, with two species, and Lymnocryptes, the Jack Snipe. Morphologically, they are all similar, with a...
is uncertain. Coenocorypha is sometimes thought to be a relict taxon of an ancient lineage; however, insufficient research has been done to prove this. The first specimen was collected from the Auckland Islands
Auckland Islands
The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands and include Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of...
during the voyage of HMS Erebus
HMS Erebus (1826)
HMS Erebus was a Hecla-class bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales in 1826. The vessel was named after the dark region in Hades of Greek mythology called Erebus...
and HMS Terror
HMS Terror (1813)
HMS Terror was a bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in the Davy shipyard in Topsham, Devon. The ship, variously listed as being of either 326 or 340 tons, carried two mortars, one and one .-War service:...
and was described by George Gray
George Robert Gray
George Robert Gray FRS was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years...
in 1845. Ten years later he assigned the species to its own genus. With the exception of the Chatham Snipe and the Forbes's Snipe (described from fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s found in the Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
) all subsequent New Zealand snipe collected were assigned as subspecies to the original species, known as the New Zealand Snipe. Subspecific forms have been described from the Snares
The Snares
Snares Islands/Tini Heke is a small island group situated approximately 200 kilometres south of New Zealand's South Island and to the south-south-west of Stewart Island/Rakiura. The Snares consist of the main island North East Island and the smaller Broughton Island as well as the somewhat...
, Little Barrier Island, Stewart Island, the Antipodes Islands
Antipodes Islands
The Antipodes Islands are inhospitable volcanic islands to the south of—and territorially part of—New Zealand...
and Campbell Island.
A morphological study and comparisons of plumage
Plumage
Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season. Within species there can also be a...
and behaviour led some authors to accept that the Snares Islands, Little Barrier Island and Stewart Island forms were all species instead of subspecies of the Auckland Island
Auckland Island
Auckland Island is the main island of the Auckland Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. It is inscribed in the together with the other subantarctic New Zealand islands in the region as follows: 877-004 Auckland Isls, New Zealand S50.29 E165.52...
snipe, also raising the possibility that the Antipodes Island snipe might be a separate species.
In 1997 a previously unknown form of snipe was discovered on Jacquemart Island
Jacquemart Island
Jacquemart Island, one of the islets surrounding Campbell Island in New Zealand, lies south of Campbell Island and is the southernmost island of New Zealand....
off Campbell Island
Campbell Island, New Zealand
Campbell Island is a remote, subantarctic island of New Zealand and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers of the group's , and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the...
. The Campbell Snipe was described as another subspecies in the radiation of New Zealand snipes. Fossil remains of Coenocorypha have also now been discovered on the islands of New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
and Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
. Fossil evidence has also shown that the Little Barrier Island form was once widespread across North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
and the Stewart Island form across South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
; both are now extinct.
Species and subspecies
- Chatham Snipe C. pusilla (Buller, 1869) - Chatham Islands
- Subantarctic Snipe C. aucklandica (G.R.Gray, 1845)
- Auckland SnipeAuckland SnipeThe Auckland Snipe or Auckland Islands Snipe is a small bird in the sandpiper family. It is the isolated nominate subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe that is endemic to the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.-Taxonomy and etymology:The...
C. a. aucklandica (G.R.Gray, 1845) - Auckland Islands - Antipodes SnipeAntipodes SnipeThe Antipodes Snipe or Antipodes Island Snipe is an isolated subspecies of the Subantarctic Snipe that is endemic to the Antipodes Islands, a subantarctic island group south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean.-Taxonomy and etymology:The Antipodes Snipe was first collected by Fairchild in 1887,...
C. a. meinertzhagenae Rothschild, 1927 - Antipodes Islands - Campbell Snipe C. a. perseverance Miskelly, 2009 - Campbell Island
- Auckland Snipe
- Snares SnipeSnares SnipeThe Snares Snipe , also known as the Snares Island Snipe or Tutukiwi in Maori, is a species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
C. huegeli (Tristram, 1893) - Snares Islands - † North Island SnipeNorth Island SnipeThe North Island Snipe , also known as the Little Barrier Snipe, is an extinct species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family that was endemic to New Zealand.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
C. barrierensis Oliver, 1955, also known as the Little Barrier Snipe - † South Island SnipeSouth Island SnipeThe South Island Snipe , also known as the Stewart Island Snipe or Tutukiwi in Maori, is an extinct species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family that was endemic to New Zealand.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
C. iredalei Rothschild, 1921, also known as the Stewart Island Snipe - † Forbes' SnipeForbes' SnipeThe Forbes' Snipe, Coenocorypha chathamica, was a species of New Zealand snipe endemic to the Chatham Islands. It was the larger of two species found there, the smaller being the surviving Chatham Island Snipe. It was never seen alive by scientists and is known only from fossil material collected...
C. chathamica (Forbes, 1893) - Chatham Islands - † Viti Levu SnipeViti Levu SnipeThe Viti Levu Snipe, Coenocorypha miratropica, was a species of snipe endemic to Fiji. A species of the mostly New Zealand genus Coenocorypha, it became extinct after the arrival of humans in Fiji.-References:...
C. miratropica Worthy, 2003 - Fiji - † New Caledonia Snipe Coenocorypha sp. - New Caledonia
- † Norfolk Snipe Coenocorypha sp. - Norfolk Island
Description
The Coenocorypha snipes resemble GallinagoGallinago
Gallinago is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 16 species. This genus contains the majority of the world's snipe species, the other three extant genera being Coenocorypha, with two species, and Lymnocryptes, the Jack Snipe. Morphologically, they are all similar, with a...
snipes, although they are smaller, stockier and have relatively shorter bill
Beak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
s. Overall they have long bills and short necks, wings and tails. They measure between 19–24 cm long, with wingspans of between 28–35 cm, and weigh between 75-120 g. The smallest species is the Chatham Island Snipe. Their plumage
Plumage
Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season. Within species there can also be a...
is overall brown; most species have a dark eye stripe. The scapulars on the wings are mottled with some species having white tips.
Diet
The Coenocorypha snipes are carnivorous, feeding on invertebrateInvertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s found by probing in the soil and in compacted vegetation. Feeding is both diurnal and nocturnal, with most hunting occurring at night and in the early morning. Bouts of feeding are characterised by continuous probing the soil with the full length of the bill. The ground is covered systematically, with about 18 holes for every 100 cm² of soil. Prey is presumably detected by touch and possibly by Herbst's corpuscles
Corpuscles of Herbst
The Corpuscles of Herbst or Herbst corpuscles are a nerve-ending similar to the Pacinian corpuscle, in the mucous membrane of the tongue, in pits on the beak and in other parts of the bodies of birds...
, clusters of cells that can detect changes in pressure and have been shown to be used by other shorebirds to detect prey. Smaller prey is swallowed with the bill still probed, as the mandibles are flexible and the prey can be manipulated in the soil. Larger prey items are removed from the soil for easier manipulating and swallowing. The most common prey items taken include earthworm
Earthworm
Earthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. In classical systems they were placed in the order Opisthopora, on the basis of the male pores opening posterior to the female pores, even though the internal male segments are anterior to the female...
s, amphipods, beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
adults and larvae and the pupae of other insects.
Breeding
The breeding biology of some of the Coenocorypha snipes has been studied in some detail. They are mostly monogamous (although occasionally some males attempt polygamyPolygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
) and defend territories
Territory (animal)
In ethology the term territory refers to any sociographical area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against conspecifics...
from other breeding pairs, although non-breeders are tolerated inside territories. Pair formation occurs some months before breeding, and males feed females as part of the courting rituals. Before breeding the male snipe also perform nocturnal aerial "hakawai" displays with calls
Bird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
followed by a non-vocal roar created by diving birds driving fast moving air across the rectrices of the tail. This display is thought to be the origin of the Māori legends about the Hakawai
Hakawai
Hakawai, also pronounced and spelt Hokioi in the North Island, with various similar, slightly variant spellings, was the name given by New Zealand Māori people to a mythological bird that was sometimes heard but not usually seen...
, a term which has been extended to refer to the aerial displays.
Both sexes choose the nesting site, although only the female builds the nest. The usual clutch size is two eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
, laid three days apart. Incubation duties are shared between the sexes, incubation taking 22 days. Where a male has two females in its territory it will incubate at just one nest, the female at the other has to incubate alone, taking 38 days to hatch chicks.
After hatching the pair splits, with each member of the pair taking one chick and raising it. Chicks are fed for around 41 days, and stay with the parent for another 20 days after that. The chick of the Chatham Island Snipe
Chatham Island Snipe
The Chatham Snipe or Chatham Island Snipe is a species of wader in the Scolopacidae family.It is endemic to the Chatham Islands of New Zealand.Its natural habitats are temperate forests and temperate grassland.-References:...
matures faster than the other species, is only fed for thirty days and becomes independent at 41 days. Parental care in the extinct South Island Snipe
South Island Snipe
The South Island Snipe , also known as the Stewart Island Snipe or Tutukiwi in Maori, is an extinct species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family that was endemic to New Zealand.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
is also thought to have been different, with studies conducted in 1923 and 1930 showing that both parents cared for a single chick. Nothing is known about the parental care of the North Island Snipe
North Island Snipe
The North Island Snipe , also known as the Little Barrier Snipe, is an extinct species of bird in the Scolopacidae, or sandpiper family that was endemic to New Zealand.-Taxonomy and etymology:...
, the Forbes's Snipe or the snipes of Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
or Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
.
Threats and conservation
The Coenocorypha snipes evolvedEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
on oceanic islands without land mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s and were ecologically naive
Island tameness
Island tameness is the tendency of many populations and species of animals living on isolated islands to lose their wariness of potential predators, particularly of large animals. The term is partly synonymous with ecological naïvete, which also has a wider meaning referring to the loss of...
with regard to mammalian predators. When humans arrived on the islands they lived on they brought with them Polynesian Rat
Polynesian Rat
The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...
s and later larger more aggressive predators such as Black Rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
s, Stoat
Stoat
The stoat , also known as the ermine or short-tailed weasel, is a species of Mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip...
s and feral cat
Feral cat
A feral cat is a descendant of a domesticated cat that has returned to the wild. It is distinguished from a stray cat, which is a pet cat that has been lost or abandoned, while feral cats are born in the wild; the offspring of a stray cat can be considered feral if born in the wild.In many parts of...
s. With the arrival of these predators Coenocorypha snipes quickly became extinct, with the species in Fiji, New Caledonia and Norfolk Island becoming extinct in prehistory. Around New Zealand snipes survived on rarely visited offshore islands and on the sub-Antarctic islands. The North Island Snipe survived until the arrival of European settlers, and the last South Island Snipe survived off Stewart Island until 1964, when rats reached Big South Cape Island. The island had also been the last refuge of the Bush Wren
Bush Wren
The Bushwren , Bush Wren, or Mātuhituhi in Maori, was a very small and almost flightless bird endemic to New Zealand. It grew to about 9 cm long and 16 g in weight. It fed mostly on invertebrates which it captured by running along the branches of trees...
and the New Zealand Greater Short-tailed Bat
New Zealand greater short-tailed bat
The New Zealand Greater Short-tailed Bat was one of two species of New Zealand short-tailed bats, a family unique to New Zealand. It lived on the North and South Islands in prehistoric times and historically lived on small islands near Stewart Island/Rakiura. Short-tailed bats were as adept at...
. Attempts were made to capture some snipe (and wrens) for translocation to a safe island, but only two snipe were caught and both died two days later.
Today the remaining species are a conservation priority. Techniques to translocate snipe without killing them have been developed, and a small group of Snares Island Snipe have been established again off Stewart Island. Campbell Island Snipe have benefited from the removal
Island restoration
The ecological restoration of islands, or island restoration, is the application of the principles of ecological restoration to islands and island groups. Islands, due to their isolation, are home to many of the world's endemic species, as well as important breeding grounds for seabirds and some...
of rats from Campbell Island in 2001; they have recolonised the main island from Jacquemart Island and begun breeding there again.