The Mauritian Duck also known as Sauzier's Teal, is an extinct dabbling duck that formerly occurred on the islands of Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 and Réunion

Réunion

Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...

. It was a small teal of the Anas gibberifrons

Sunda Teal

The Sunda Teal, Anas gibberifrons, also known as the Indonesian Teal, is a dabbling duck found in open wetlands in Indonesia. The species formerly included the Andaman Teal Anas albogularis and the Grey Teal, Anas gracilis as subspecies....

superspecies

Superspecies

A superspecies is a group of at least two more or less distinctive species with approximately parapatric distributions. Not all species complexes, whether cryptices or ring species are superspecies, and vice versa, but many are...

 of the Anas subgenus

Subgenus

In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...

 Nettion. Its closest relative is probably Bernier's Teal

Bernier's Teal

Bernier's Teal Anas bernieri is a duck species of the genus Anas. It is endemic to Madagascar, where it is found only along the west coast....

 from Madagascar and, apart from having stronger wings and being considerably bigger (between a Sunda Teal

Sunda Teal

The Sunda Teal, Anas gibberifrons, also known as the Indonesian Teal, is a dabbling duck found in open wetlands in Indonesia. The species formerly included the Andaman Teal Anas albogularis and the Grey Teal, Anas gracilis as subspecies....

 and a Mallard

Mallard

The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....

 in size), it seems to have looked very similar to that species. Earlier, it was proposed that Meller's Duck

Meller's Duck

Meller's Duck is a species of the dabbling duck genus Anas. It is endemic to eastern Madagascar. Although a population was established on Mauritius in the mid-18th century, this is on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss and competition by feral domestic ducks...

, also from Madagascar, is the closest living relative of A. theodori, but as more remains of the latter were unearthed this appears far less likely. Apart from a few, brief descriptions, not much is known about the bird in life, but its habits probably did not differ significantly from those of its close relatives. Bones have been found on Mauritius and more recently on Réunion also. The scientific name honours Thé́odore Sauzier, who made many bones of extinct birds found on Mauritius available to science.

Extinction

The bird became extinct on both islands almost simultaneously and for the same reason: overhunting. On Mauritus, the "grey teals" were found in "great numbers" in 1681, but in 1693, Leguat (1708) found "wild ducks" to be already rare. In 1696, governor Deodati mentioned the species for the last time to be extant. On Réunion, the species is last mentioned to occur "in quantity" in de la Merveille's 1709 listing of the island's wildlife, but as Feuilley had not listed waterfowl in his 1705 report, de la Merveille's record is obviously based on obsolete hearsay information. The last reliable Réunion record of the species appears to be the report of Père Bernardin in 1687; thus, the date of extinction can be assumed to be the late 1690s on Mauritius, and a few years earlier on Réunion.

The reports of Bernardin and (1710) Boucher are puzzling insofar as that they mention both geese

Réunion Shelduck

The Réunion Shelduck or Kervazo's Egyptian Goose is an extinct species of goose from Réunion. It was a close relative of the Egyptian Goose and was about the same size. There is only one description remaining, that of Dubois made in 1674. He merely mentions that they were similar to European geese...

, sarcelles (teals, this species) as well as canards (ducks, larger than sarcelles) as occurring or having occurred on Réunion. It is possible that a carpometacarpus

Carpometacarpus

The carpometacarpus is the fusion of the carpal and metacarpal bone, essentially a single fused bone between the wrist and the knuckles. It is a smallish bone in most birds, generally flattened and with a large hole in the middle. In flightless birds, however, its shape may be slightly different,...

 bone apparently of an Aythya

Aythya

Aythya is a genus of diving ducks. It has twelve described species.Aythya shihuibas was described from the Late Miocene of China. An undescribed prehistoric species is known only from Early Pleistocene fossil remains found at Dursunlu, Turkey; it might however be referrable to a paleosubspecies of...

diving duck is referrable to these canards. If so, these birds were probably related to the Madagascar Pochard

Madagascar Pochard

The Madagascar Pochard is an extremely rare diving duck of the genus Aythya, previously thought extinct. Prior to a rediscovery in 2006, the last confirmed sighting of the species was at Lake Alaotra on the Central Plateau of Madagascar in 1991...

, of which only small numbers are known to remain.