Tasmanian emu

Tasmanian emu
1910 restoration by John Gerrard Keulemans, based on a skin at the British Museum, posed after a photograph of the mainland emu
Extinct (1865)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Infraclass: Palaeognathae
Order: Casuariiformes
Family: Casuariidae
Genus: Dromaius
Species:
D. novaehollandiae
Subspecies:
†D. n. diemenensis
Trinomial name
†Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis
Le Souef, 1907
Geographic distribution of emu taxa and historic shoreline reconstructions around Tasmania
Synonyms

Dromaeius diemenensis (lapsus) Le Souef, 1907

The Tasmanian emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis) is an extinct subspecies of emu. It was found in Tasmania, where it had become isolated during the Late Pleistocene. As opposed to the other insular emu taxa, the King Island emu and the Kangaroo Island emu, the population on Tasmania was sizable, meaning that there were no marked effects of small population size as in the other two isolates.

The Tasmanian emu became extinct around 1865 according to the Australian Species Profile and Threats database.[1] This was officially recorded in 1997 when changes to listings of nationally threatened species saw the Tasmanian emu added to the list of species presumed extinct.[2]

Information regarding the emu is reliant on 19th century documentary evidence and the limited number of emu specimens in museums. As a consequence one of the biggest challenges in researching the Tasmanian emu is the many names or spellings used to describe the emu. The early colonial accounts spell it 'emue',[3] Reverend Robert Knopwood spelt it as 'emew'.[4] Other early accounts referred to it as a 'cassowary' and even an 'ostrich'.[5] George Augustus Robinson recorded two indigenous words for the Tasmanian emu. The Oyster Bay Indigenous language word for emu is Pun.nune.ner and the Brune Indigenous language word is Gonanner.[6]

  1. ^ "Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis / Tasmanian emu / Emu (Tasmanian)". Species profile and threats database. Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Tasmanian emu officially extinct". The Advocate. Burnie, Tasmania. 22 August 1997. p. 11.
  3. ^ "Lieutenant Governor Collin's arrival in VDL". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 26 August 1804.
  4. ^ Knopwood, Robert (1977). Nicholls, Mary (ed.). The diary of the Reverend Robert Knopwood, 1803-1838: First chaplain of Van Diemen's Land. Hobart, Tasmania: Tasmanian Historical Research Association. ISBN 0-909479-00-3. OCLC 4467573.
  5. ^ "Emus at Windsor". Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser. 9 January 1824.
  6. ^ Robinson, George Augustus (2008). Plomley, N.J.B. (ed.). Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834 (2nd ed.). Launceston, Tasmania: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery / Quintus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9775572-2-6. OCLC 271559484.