Lyall's wren

Common card · No. 317144

Lyall's wren, the Stephens Island wren or the Stephens Island rockwren (Traversia lyalli) is an extinct species of small, flightless passerine bird belonging to the family Acanthisittidae, the New Zealand wrens. It was once found throughout New Zealand, but by the time of its discovery by scientists in 1894, it could only be found on Stephens Island in Cook Strait. Often claimed to be a species driven extinct by only a single individual animal (a lighthouse keeper's cat named Tibbles), it was actually predated upon by the numerous feral cats found throughout the island. The wren was described almost simultaneously by both Walter Rothschild and Walter Buller; it became extinct shortly thereafter.

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