Cats Found To Prey On Auckland Island Rail

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31005, 10 March 1966, Page 9

Cats Found To Prey On Auckland Island Rail

"Th« Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, March 9. Cats have almost caused the extinction of Auckland Island rails on Adams Island. The rail was rediscovered recently after being thought extinct “This discovery demonstrates that Adams Island is

largely untouched,” said Mr K. A. J. Wise, an Auckland War Memorial Museum entomologist. “The rails and other small animals, including insects have been killed on the main Auckland Island by cats and mice.” Strangely enough there were no rats on the islands, Mr Wise said. “Perhaips the cats ate the rats or something along that line.” The cats came from shipwrecks and other mariners who landed on the islands. “They now roam Auckland Island, though you rarely see them,” he said. “They are wild, vicious and mot too well fed.” Mr Wise, who spent three weeks on an expedition to Adams Island, the southernmost in the group, said its flora and fauna should be in their original state. “Adams Island is one of the very few in the whole of sub-Antarctica that has not had any animals or plants introduced on it,” he said. He collected more than 2000 specimens of insects during his trip which he undertook as a joint Auckland Museum-Bishop Museum representative. The Bishop Museum is in Honolulu, Hawaii, and part of Ms collection will be sent there.