Cheke's wood rail (''Dryolimnas chekei''), also known as Sauzier's wood rail, is an extinct species of

rail 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 fil ...

that was

endemic 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 ...

to the

Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their na ...

island of

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. It was described by British ornithologist Julian P. Hume in 2019, and the name honors British

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

Anthony S. Cheke. Previously mentioned as an undescribed extinct taxon and provisionally named Sauzier's wood-rail, or ''

Dryolimnas The genus ''Dryolimnas'' comprises birds in the Rallidae, rail family. The Réunion rail, a member of this genus, became extinction, extinct in the 17th century. The white-throated rail of Aldabra is the last surviving flightless bird in the west ...

sp.'', it was described as a new species in 2019. It is known from

and was originally thought to be an isolated population of ''D. cuvieri cuvieri'', which is a rare vagrant to Mauritius, until analysis of the fossils found it to be a distinct flightless taxon that is likely descended from ''D. cuvieri''. This species may be the "small rail" referred to in the accounts of Dutch explorers, in contrast to the "large rail", which may be the red rail.

References

Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands Bird extinctions since 1500 Birds of Mauritius Birds described in 2019 {{Gruiformes-stub