Mascarenotus grucheti

As the bird is not mentioned by any contemporary report, it was either very secretive or became extinct more early than its congeners. Notably, it is not contained in the comprehensive listing of local fauna that Dubois made in 1671-72. By that time, the only introduced predators were pigs. Inferring from the ecology, it is likely that the birds succumbed to predation by rats and maybe cats as they must have been able enough for flight not to be killed off by pigs and thus only became extinct after Dubois' visit, at some date closer to the year 1700. If the bird was ground-nesting, however, it might have been extinct even by the time Dubois did not record it, but this hypothesis does not seem to agree what can be inferred from the rather long survival of its Mauritius relative.

The Mascarenotus grucheti is classified as Extinct (EX), there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.

Nothing known about the Mascarenotus grucheti

Order : Strigiformes
Family : Strigidae
Genus : Mascarenotus
Species : grucheti
Authority : Mourer-Chauviré, Bour, Moutou & Ribes, 1994