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The Cape Barren goose (''Cereopsis novaehollandiae'') is a large goose resident in southern
These are bulky geese and their almost uniformly grey plumage, bearing rounded black spots, is unique. The tail and flight feathers are blackish and the legs are pink with black feet. The short, decurved black bill and green cere gives it a very peculiar expression.
The Cape Barren goose is long, weighs and has a wingspan; males are somewhat larger than females. This bird feeds by grazing and rarely swims.
BirdLife Species Factsheet
Holotype of ''Cereopsis novaehollandiae'' in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa TongarewaPhotos, audio and video of Cape Barren goose
from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library
Photos of Cape Barren goose
from Graeme Chapman's photo library {{Taxonbar, from=Q257006 Cape Barren goose Cape Barren goose Birds of South Australia Birds of Tasmania Birds of Victoria (Australia) Birds of Western Australia Cape Barren goose Cape Barren goose
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Etymology
The species' common name is derived from Cape Barren Island, where specimens were first sighted by European explorers. It is known in the localJardwadjali language
The Wemba Wemba language is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language once spoken along the Murray River and its tributaries in North Western Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Central New South Wales.
Nari Nari, a dialect of Wemba Wemba ...
as ''toolka''.
Taxonomy
The Cape Barren goose was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the currentbinomial name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
.
It is a most peculiar goose of uncertain affiliations (Sraml ''et al.'' 1996). It may either belong in the "true geese" and swan
Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
Anserinae or in the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae as distinct tribe Cereopsini, or be separated, possibly including the prehistorically extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
flightless New Zealand geese of the genus '' Cnemiornis'', in a distinct subfamily Cereopsinae. The first bones of the New Zealand birds to be discovered were similar enough to those of the Cape Barren goose to erroneously refer to them as "New Zealand Cape Barren goose" (''"Cereopsis" novaezeelandiae'').
The smaller population of Cape Barren goose in Western Australia is described as a subspecies, '' Cereopsis novaehollandiae grisea'', and named for the group of islands known as the Recherche Archipelago.
Description
These are bulky geese and their almost uniformly grey plumage, bearing rounded black spots, is unique. The tail and flight feathers are blackish and the legs are pink with black feet. The short, decurved black bill and green cere gives it a very peculiar expression.
The Cape Barren goose is long, weighs and has a wingspan; males are somewhat larger than females. This bird feeds by grazing and rarely swims.
Behaviour
Their ability to drink salt or brackish water allows numbers of geese to remain on offshore islands all year round. They are one of the rarest of the world's geese. They are gregarious outside the breeding season, when they wander more widely, forming small flocks.Range and habitat
A previous decline in numbers appears to have been reversed as birds in the east at least have adapted to feeding on agricultural land. The breeding areas are grassy islands off the Australian coast, where this species nests on the ground. Breeding pairs are strongly territorial. It bears captivity well, quite readily breeding in confinement if large enough paddocks are provided. In Australia, 19th-century explorers named a number of islands "Goose Island" due to the species' presence there. A few geese were introduced near Christchurch, New Zealand. They have persisted to this day. In 1968, a small number of geese were introduced to Maria Island.References
*Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1987): ''Wildfowl : an identification guide to the ducks, geese and swans of the world''. Christopher Helm, London. *Sraml, M.; Christidis, L.; Easteal, S.; Horn, P. & Collet, C. (1996): Molecular Relationships Within Australasian Waterfowl (Anseriformes). ''Australian Journal of Zoology'' 44(1): 47–58. (HTML abstract) https://tomelbourne.com.au/cape-barren-goose-bird-phillip-island/External links
BirdLife Species Factsheet
Holotype of ''Cereopsis novaehollandiae'' in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library
Photos of Cape Barren goose
from Graeme Chapman's photo library {{Taxonbar, from=Q257006 Cape Barren goose Cape Barren goose Birds of South Australia Birds of Tasmania Birds of Victoria (Australia) Birds of Western Australia Cape Barren goose Cape Barren goose