Black Mamo
Encyclopedia
The Black Mamo is an extinct
bird
species once endemic to the island of Molokai
, although there is fossil evidence of it having lived on Maui
.
It measured 8 inches (20.3 cm) from bill to tail, and was black with faded white primaries and yellow at the base of the bill. The highly decurved bill was longer in the male. Often the forehead would be dusted with pollen of its favorite food, the Lobelia. The Mamo song was a group of nose whistles that sounded like a flute along with a long held out trill. This bird has had many names including Molokai Mamo, O’o nuku’umu, which meant "O’o with sucking beak", and Perking’s Mamo, after ornithologist R.C.L Perkins
who produced most of the information about this species.
By habit an understory bird, it was affected by the introduction of cattle and deer which destroyed much its habitat, as well as direct and egg predation by introduced rats and mongooses.
It was discovered in 1893 in the Pelekuna Valley, and named Drepanis funerea by Perkins because it appeared to him to be a dark mourning bird.
The last specimen was collected in 1907 by William Alanson Bryan. Tim Flannery
quoted him as having written, "To my joy I found the mangled remains hanging in the tree in a thick bunch of leaves, six feet or more beyond where it had been sitting." Even if Bryan did not shoot the last Black Mamo, sightings stopped within a few years, and a large-scale search for this bird in 1936 found no specimens.
Preserved specimens of the Black Mamo include the ones at Bremen
, Boston
, Honolulu, London
and New York City
.
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally 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 recover may have been lost before this point...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
species once endemic to the island of Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
, although there is fossil evidence of it having lived on Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
.
It measured 8 inches (20.3 cm) from bill to tail, and was black with faded white primaries and yellow at the base of the bill. The highly decurved bill was longer in the male. Often the forehead would be dusted with pollen of its favorite food, the Lobelia. The Mamo song was a group of nose whistles that sounded like a flute along with a long held out trill. This bird has had many names including Molokai Mamo, O’o nuku’umu, which meant "O’o with sucking beak", and Perking’s Mamo, after ornithologist R.C.L Perkins
Robert Cyril Layton Perkins
Robert Cyril Layton Perkins FRS was a distinguished British entomologist, ornithologist, and naturalist noted for his work on the fauna of the islands of Hawaii and on Hymenoptera...
who produced most of the information about this species.
By habit an understory bird, it was affected by the introduction of cattle and deer which destroyed much its habitat, as well as direct and egg predation by introduced rats and mongooses.
It was discovered in 1893 in the Pelekuna Valley, and named Drepanis funerea by Perkins because it appeared to him to be a dark mourning bird.
The last specimen was collected in 1907 by William Alanson Bryan. Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
quoted him as having written, "To my joy I found the mangled remains hanging in the tree in a thick bunch of leaves, six feet or more beyond where it had been sitting." Even if Bryan did not shoot the last Black Mamo, sightings stopped within a few years, and a large-scale search for this bird in 1936 found no specimens.
Preserved specimens of the Black Mamo include the ones at Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Honolulu, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.