Anas chathamica

Anas chathamica, the Chatham duck or Chatham Island duck, is an extinct species of duck which once lived in New Zealand's Chatham Islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean.

Anas chathamica Temporal range: Late Pleistocene-Holocene
Skull of Anas chathamica from the Te Papa collections
Conservation status
Extinct (16th century)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Anseriformes
Family:	Anatidae
Genus:	Anas
Species:	†A. chathamica
Binomial name
†Anas chathamica Oliver, 1955

Taxonomy

The species was formerly placed in a monotypic genus, Pachyanas. However, analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from subfossil remains^[1] showed that the Chatham duck was not, in fact, closely related to shelducks but instead belongs in the genus Anas: the dabbling ducks. Its closest living relatives appear to be the Auckland teal, Campbell teal and the brown teal from New Zealand.

Description

It was described by Walter Oliver (as a "stoutly built duck") from bird bones in the collection of the Canterbury Museum in 1955 in the second edition of his work New Zealand Birds.^[2] Some authors have suggested that the Chatham duck was flightless;^[3] however, comparison of Chatham duck wing bones with those from living ducks indicates no disproportional reduction in wing length.^[1]

The species is known from a few hundred fossil bones found on the main island in the Chatham Islands group.^[4]

Extinction

The species likely became extinct around the 16th century due to human hunting.^[4][5]