The Réunion sheldgoose or Kervazo's Egyptian goose (''Alopochen kervazoi'') is an extinct species of

sheldgoose ''Chloephaga'' is a genus of sheldgeese in the family Anatidae. Other sheldgeese are found in the genera ''Alopochen'' and ''Neochen''. Taxonomy The genus ''Chloephaga'' was introduced in 1838 by the English naturalist Thomas Campbell Eyton i ...

from

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

. It was a close relative of the

Egyptian goose The Egyptian goose (''Alopochen aegyptiaca'') is a member of the duck, goose, and swan family Anatidae. It is native to Africa south of the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Egyptian geese were considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians, and appear ...

and was about the same size. There is only one description remaining, that of Dubois made in 1674. Apart from that, the species is only known from brief reports and

subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

bones. Dubois' full account reads as follows:

Extinction

Waterfowl on Réunion were overhunted. As early as 1667, François Martin complained of unsustainable hunting. The last record of the species is a 1709 listing of de la Merveille who stated that ducks and geese occurred "in quantity", 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 catalogue of Réunion's animals, de la Merveille's record is obviously based on obsolete hearsay information. Thus, the last 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. The species probably became extinct during the 1690s.

References

* Cowles, Graham S. (1994): A new genus, three new species and two new records of extinct Holocene birds from Réunion Island, Indian Ocean. ''Geobios'' 27(1): 87–93. Alopochen Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands Bird extinctions since 1500 Birds of Réunion Birds described in 1994 {{Réunion-stub