Gallirallus


Gallirallus is a genus of rails that live in the Australasian-Pacific region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct following Polynesian settlement.

Taxonomy

The genus Gallirallus was introduced in 1841 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye to accommodate a single species, Gallirallus brachypterus Lafresnaye. This is the type species. The name is a junior synonym of Rallus australis Sparman, 1786, the weka. The genus name is a portmanteau of the genera Gallus that had been introduced by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 for the fowl, and the genus Rallus that had been introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the rails.
The genus Gallirallus now includes species that were formerly placed in the genera Aptenorallus, Habroptila, Eulabeornis, Cabalus, and Hypotaenidia. Based on genetic analyses that showed relatively shallow branch lengths and sometimes conflicting relationships, the five genera have been subsumed into a broad Gallirallus.

Description

Many of the rails, including the well-known weka of New Zealand, are flightless or nearly so.
Many of the resultant flightless island endemics became extinct after the arrival of humans, which hunted these birds for food, introduced novel predators like rats, dogs or pigs, and upset the local ecosystems. A common Polynesian name of these rails, mainly relatives of G. philippensis, is veka/''weka.
On the other hand, Gallirallus'' species are notoriously retiring and shy birds with often drab coloration.

Species

The genus contains 18 species. Of these 6 have become extinct in historical times.
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Calayan railGallirallus calayanensis
Calayan Island
Invisible railGallirallus wallacii
Halmahera
Chestnut railGallirallus castaneoventris
Aru Islands and coastal north Australia
WekaGallirallus australisNorth Island, South Island, Stewart Island and satellites
†New Caledonian railGallirallus lafresnayanus
forest of New Caledonia
Lord Howe woodhenGallirallus sylvestris
Lord Howe Island
Okinawa railGallirallus okinawae
forest and edge from lowlands to hills of northern Okinawa
†Tahiti railGallirallus pacificus
formerly Tahiti and adjacent eastern Society Islands; extinct, last reported 1800
Buff-banded railGallirallus philippensis
Philippines to Australia and Pacific islands
†Chatham railGallirallus modestus
formerly Chatham Islands; extinct, last reported 1900
†Dieffenbach's railGallirallus dieffenbachii
formerly Chatham Islands; extinct, last reported 1900
Pink-legged railGallirallus insignis
forest of New Britain
Woodford's railGallirallus woodfordi
Solomon Islands
†Bar-winged railGallirallus poecilopterus
formerly Viti Levu and Ovalau, Fiji ; extinct, last reported 1973
Guam railGallirallus owstoni
forest of Guam ; extinct in the wild until successfully reintroduced into Rota, [Northern Mariana Islands|Rota] and Cocos Islands
†Wake Island railGallirallus wakensis
formerly Wake Island; extinct, last reported 1944
Barred railGallirallus torquatus
Philippines, islets off Sabah, Sulawesi and satellites and west New Guinea
Roviana railGallirallus rovianae
New Georgia islands

Species extinct before A.D. 1500

Aside from the weka, all species classified in the genus Gallirallus are only known from subfossil remains, having gone extinct in the Quaternary extinction event. Given the recent taxonomic changes that have led to the weka being the only remaining Gallirallus species, it is possible these may also belong to different genera, but are presently retained in Gallirallus due to uncertainty.