The Mascarene teal (''Anas theodori''), also known as Sauzier's teal and Mauritian duck, is an extinct dabbling duck that formerly occurred on the islands of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

and Réunion.

Taxonomy

The reports of Bernardin and (1710) Boucher are puzzling insofar as that they mention both

geese A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the she ...

, ''sarcelles'' (teals, this species) as well as ''canards'' (ducks, larger than ''sarcelles'') as occurring or having occurred on Réunion. It is possible that a

carpometacarpus The carpometacarpus is a bone found in the hands of birds. It results from the fusion of the carpal and metacarpal bone, and is essentially a single fused bone between the wrist and the knuckles. It is a smallish bone in most birds, generally flat ...

bone apparently of an ''

Aythya ''Aythya'' is a genus of diving ducks. It has twelve described species. The name ''Aythya'' comes from the Ancient Greek word (), which may have referred to a sea-dwelling duck or an auklet. ''Aythya shihuibas'' was described from the Late Mi ...

'' diving duck is referrable to these ''canards''. If so, these birds were probably related to the

Madagascar pochard The Madagascar pochard or Madagascan pochard (''Aythya innotata''; mg, Fotsy maso, Onjo) is an extremely rare diving duck of the genus ''Aythya''. Thought to be extinct in the late 1990s, specimens of the species were rediscovered at Lake Matsa ...

, of which only small numbers are known to remain. Earlier, it was proposed that

Meller's duck Meller's duck (''Anas melleri'') is a species of the dabbling duck genus ''Anas''. It is endemic to eastern Madagascar. Although a population was established on Mauritius in the mid-18th century, this is on the verge of extinction due to habitat ...

, also from Madagascar, is the closest living relative of ''A. theodori'', but as more remains of the latter were unearthed this appears far less likely. Apart from a few, brief descriptions, not much is known about the bird in life, but its habits probably did not differ significantly from those of its close relatives. Bones have been found in the

Mare aux Songes The Mare aux Songes () swamp is a lagerstätte located close to the sea in south eastern Mauritius. Many subfossils of recently extinct animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of dodos w ...

swamp on Mauritius and more recently on Réunion also. The scientific name honours Thé́odore Sauzier, who made many bones of extinct birds found on Mauritius available to science.

Description

It was a small teal of the '' Anas gibberifrons'' superspecies of the ''Anas'' subgenus ''Nettion''. Its closest relative is probably

Bernier's teal Bernier's teal (''Anas bernieri''), also known as the Madagascar teal, is a species of duck in the genus ''Anas''. It is endemic to Madagascar, where it is found only along the west coast. Part of the "grey teal" complex found throughout Australa ...

from Madagascar and, apart from having stronger wings and being considerably bigger (between a Sunda teal and a mallard in size), it seems to have looked very similar to that species.

Extinction

The bird became extinct on both islands almost simultaneously and for the same reason: overhunting. On Mauritius, the "grey teals" were found in "great numbers" in 1681, but in 1693, Leguat (1708) found "wild ducks" to be already rare. In 1696, governor Deodati mentioned the species for the last time to be extant. On Réunion, the species is last mentioned to occur "in quantity" in de la Merveille's 1709 listing of the island's wildlife, but as

Jean Feuilley Jean Feuilley was a pilot engineer and cartographer who was sent to Réunion by the French East India Company to investigate the possibility of agricultural and marine exploitation. He arrived in the island in 1704 and the following year returne ...

had not listed waterfowl in his 1705 report, de la Merveille's record is obviously based on obsolete hearsay information. The last reliable Réunion record of the species appears to be the report of

Père Bernardin A name suffix, in the Western English-language naming tradition, follows a person's full name and provides additional information about the person. Post-nominal letters indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accredit ...

in 1687; thus, the date of extinction can be assumed to be the late 1690s on Mauritius, and a few years earlier on Réunion.

References

* Leguat, François (1708): ''Voyages et Avantures de François Leguat & de ses Compagnons, en Deux Isles Desertes des Indes Orientales, etc.'' 2: 71. Jean Louis de Lorme, Amsterdam
PDF fulltext available at Gallica: search for "Leguat"
* Newton, Edward & Gadow, Hans Friedrich (1893): On additional bones of the Dodo and other extinct birds of Mauritius obtained by Mr. Théodore Sauzier. ''Trans. Zool. Soc.'' 13: 281–302, plate 34: figures 11–17. {{Taxonbar, from=Q740229 Anas Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands Extinct animals of Mauritius Bird extinctions since 1500 Birds of Mauritius Birds described in 1893 Birds of Réunion Taxa named by Edward Newton Taxa named by Hans Friedrich Gadow