Delalande's coua (''Coua delalandei''), also known as the snail-eating coua or Delalande's coucal, is an

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 ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of non-parasitic

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It only was known to science as an extant bird for a very short time in the early 19th century. There is some disagreement about its area of occurrence: Although there were claims that the bird was also found in the area of

Fito A unit prefix is a specifier or mnemonic that is prepended to units of measurement to indicate multiples or fractions of the units. Units of various sizes are commonly formed by the use of such prefixes. The prefixes of the metric system, such as ...

and

Maroantsetra Maroantsetra , formerly Louisbourg, is a market town and domestic seaport in Analanjirofo Region, Madagascar, at the northern end of the Bay of Antongil. In 2005 it had a population of 42,529 people. History Maurice Benyovszky arrived in Maroant ...

as well as near

Toamasina Toamasina (), meaning "like salt" or "salty", unofficially and in French Tamatave, is the capital of the Atsinanana region on the east coast of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean. The city is the chief seaport of the country, situated northeast of it ...

(Tamatave), i.e., the coastal areas of northern

Toamasina Province The Toamasina Province is a former province of Madagascar with an area of 71,911 km². It had a population of 2,855,600 (2004). Its capital was Toamasina, the most important seaport of the country. The province was also known as Tamatave Provi ...

, all specimens with good locality data are from the offshore island of

Nosy Boraha Nosy Boraha , previously known as Sainte-Marie, main town Ambodifotatra, is an island off the east coast of Madagascar. The island forms an administrative district within Analanjirofo Region, and covers an area of 222 km2. It has a popula ...

. As the vernacular name implies,

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

s were a favored food item of this species.

Extinction

Of the 14 specimens that exist nowadays, all but two are known to have taken between 1827 and 1834, many by the surgeon and naturalist Chevalier Joseph Alphonse Bernier. The

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

type specimen was in the collection of the

Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

before that date, and one specimen may have been taken as late as 1850. As this species - the second-largest

coua Couas are large, mostly terrestrial birds of the cuckoo family, endemic to the island of Madagascar. Couas are reminiscent of African turacos when walking along tree branches, and they likewise feature brightly coloured bare skin around the eyes ...

extant in modern times - was very spectacular, it was much sought after as a museum piece. However, it probably was restricted to coastal rainforest on Nosy Boraha, and its habitat was largely destroyed by

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

in the course of the 19th century. Introduction of

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

s may also have contributed to its demise, probably less by direct predation than by competition for food, but there probably was a thriving rat population on Nosy Boraha as soon as 1700, considering that the island was a favorite place for pirates to overhaul. Cats, which would have preyed on the bird, were probably introduced only in the 19th century and make a more likely candidate for an introduced species that had a negative impact on Delalande's coua. There are some reports that the locals on the adjacent mainland were still occasionally hunting this bird for its decorative plumage in the 1920s, but these seem in error, these records probably referring to the

blue coua The blue coua (''Coua caerulea'') is a species of bird in the cuckoo family, Cuculidae. It is endemic to the island of Madagascar. Taxonomy This species was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766. There was once twelve species of ''Coua'' but only e ...

. What is known with certainty is that in 1932, large sums were offered to well-connected animal dealers in

Antananarivo Antananarivo ( French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known as Antananarivo-Renivohitra ("Antananarivo-Mother Hill" or "An ...

for specimens of Delalande's coua, but they were unable to procure any. The color pattern of the species is unique among couas, which may be a hint that it evolved in fact in the isolation of Nosy Boraha and never occurred anywhere else. Specimens from "Tamatave" probably just indicate their port of shipment or the location of the animal dealer who procured them.

References

* Temminck, Coenraad Jacob (1827): 'Coccycus delalandei'' ''In: Nouveau recueil de planches coloriees d'oiseaux, etc.'' 74: plate 440. Strasbourg & Amsterdam.

External links

3D view
of specimen RMNH 110.100 at

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

, Leiden (requires

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

browser plugin). {{Taxonbar, from=Q279670

Delalande's coua Delalande's coua (''Coua delalandei''), also known as the snail-eating coua or Delalande's coucal, is an extinct species of non-parasitic cuckoo from Madagascar. It only was known to science as an extant bird for a very short time in the early 19 ...

Extinct birds of Madagascar

Bird extinctions since 1500 Species made extinct by human activities Articles containing video clips Fauna of the Madagascar lowland forests