''Gallirallus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

rails Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters * Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fi ...

that live in the

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct following Polynesian settlement.

Taxonomy

Following recent taxonomic revisions, there is only one known extant species in this genus along with several extinct species of dubious classification, with all other species being moved to '' Hypotaenidia'', '' Cabalus'', ''

Lewinia ''Lewinia'' is a genus of birds in the family Rallidae. The genus was erected by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855 with Lewin's rail ''Lewinia pectoralis'' as the type species. The genus name is from a synonym of the type specie ...

'', or '' Aptenorallus''.

Description

Many of the rails, including the well-known

weka The weka, also known as the Māori hen or woodhen (''Gallirallus australis'') is a flightless bird species of the rail family. It is endemic to New Zealand. Some authorities consider it as the only extant member of the genus '' Gallirallus''. ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, are flightless or nearly so. Many of the resultant flightless island

endemics Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

became

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

after the arrival of humans, which hunted these birds for food, introduced novel

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

s like rats, dogs or pigs, and upset the local

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s. A common Polynesian name of these rails, mainly relatives of ''G. philippensis'', is ''veka''/''weka'' (in English, this name is generally limited to '' Gallirallus australis''). On the other hand, ''Gallirallus'' species are (with the exception of the weka) notoriously retiring and shy birds with often drab coloration.

Living and recently extinct species

In the online list maintained by Frank Gill,

Pamela Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithology, ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State Uni ...

and David Donsker on behalf of the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

(IOC), the genus contains only one extant species: These species were placed by BirdLife International and IUCN in the separate genus '' Hypotaenidia'', but are still considered part of ''Gallirallus'' by ''

The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...

'' /

eBird eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, the project e ...

: *

Okinawa rail The Okinawa rail (''Hypotaenidia okinawae'') is a species of bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It is endemic to Okinawa Island in Japan where it is known as the . Its existence was only confirmed in 1978 and it was formally described in 1981 al ...

, ''Gallirallus okinawae'' * Barred rail, ''Gallirallus torquatus'' * Pink-legged rail, ''Gallirallus insignis'' * Roviana rail, ''Gallirallus rovianae'' *

Guam rail The Guam rail (''Hypotaenidia owstoni''), known locally and in Chamorro as ''ko'ko, is a small, terrestrial bird endemic to Guam in the Rallidae family. They are one of the island's few remaining endemic bird species. The species became extinc ...

, ''Gallirallus owstoni'' –

extinct in the wild A species that is extinct in the wild (EW) is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as only consisting of living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range ...

(late 1980s) * Lord Howe woodhen, ''Gallirallus sylvestris'' * Buff-banded rail, ''Gallirallus philippensis'' * Dieffenbach's rail, ''Gallirallus dieffenbachii'' –

(mid-19th century) *

Wake Island rail The extinct Wake Island rail or Wake rail (''Hypotaenidia wakensis'') was a flightless rail and the only native land bird on the Pacific atoll of Wake. It was found on the islands of Wake and Wilkes, and Peale, which is separated from the ot ...

, ''Gallirallus wakensis'' –

(1945) * Tahiti rail, ''Gallirallus pacificus'' –

(late 18th – 19th century) The

Calayan rail The Calayan rail (''Aptenorallus calayanensis'') is a flightless bird of the rail, moorhen, and coot family (Rallidae) that inhabits Calayan Island in the Philippines. It is the only member of the genus ''Aptenorallus''. Though well known to na ...

(formerly ''Gallirallus calayanensis'') was placed into the genus ''Aptenorallus'' in 2021.

Species extinct before A.D. 1500

Aside from the weka, all species classified in the genus ''Gallirallus'' are only known from subfossil remains, having gone extinct in the

Quaternary extinction event The Late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene saw the extinction of the majority of the world's megafauna, typically defined as animal species having body masses over , which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity acro ...

. Given the recent taxonomic changes that have led to the weka being the only remaining ''Gallirallus'' species, it is possible these may also belong to different genera, but are presently retained in ''Gallirallus'' due to uncertainty. * Astolfo's rail, ''Gallirallus astolfoi'' * Nuku Hiva rail, ''Gallirallus epulare'' * New Ireland rail, ''Gallirallus ernstmayri'' * Ua Huka rail, ''Gallirallus gracilitibia''(subscription required) * Niue rail, ''Gallirallus huiatua'' * Tinian rail, ''Gallirallus pendiculentus'' * Aguiguan rail, ''Gallirallus pisonii'' * Mangaia rail, ''Gallirallus ripleyi'' * Tahuata rail, ''Gallirallus roletti'' * Tubuai rail, ''Gallirallus steadmani'' * Huahine rail, ''Gallirallus storrsolsoni'' * Rota rail, ''Gallirallus temptatus'' * Eua rail, ''Gallirallus vekamatolu'' – possibly survived to the early 19th century * Hiva Oa rail, ?''Gallirallus'' sp. * Norfolk Island rail, ''Gallirallus'' sp. - possibly survived to the early 19th century * Vava'u rail, ''Gallirallus'' 'Hypotaenidia''''vavauensis'' Worthy & Burley 2020

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Bird genera with one living species