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Giant, fruit-gulping pigeon eaten into extinction on Pacific islands
A large fruit-eating bird from Tonga joins the dodo in the lineup of giant island pigeons hunted to extinction.
A large fruit-eating bird from Tonga joins the dodo in the lineup of giant island pigeons hunted to extinction.Fossils show that Tongoenas burleyi, a newly described genus and species, inhabited the Pacific islands for at least 60,000 years, but vanished within a century or two of human arrival around 2,850 years ago.
Unlike the dodo and the extinct Viti Levu giant pigeon of Fiji, however, T. burleyi could fly. This canopy-dwelling species co-evolved with fruit-bearing trees in the mango, guava…
