General Information

COMMON NAMES: Rimatara Lorikeet, Kuhl's Lorikeet, Scarlet-breasted Lorikeet, Ruby Lorikeet; German Rubinlori TRADITIONAL NAMES: Kura (RR MG AT AK?) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Southeast Polynesia (Cooks extinct, Rimatara) COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native, Resident Breeder, Endemic of se.Polynesia, Extirpated in Cooks by 1820s, reintroduced to Atiu 2007; S.Group only (Atiu only); Land, horticultural

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
X	X	P	X	-	X	-	-	-

Northern Group: -
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Vini kuhlii (Vigors, 1824)
TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); TETRAPODA; AVES; NEORNITHES; Psittaciformes; PSITTACIDAE, Loriidae

GENERAL NOTE: Heinrich Kuhl (1797-1821), a German zoologist, was an assistant in the Leiden Museum, Holland. In 1819 he published Conspectus psittacorum, and also the first monograph on petrels. He went to Java, in the Netherlands East Indies in 1820 and sent back an enormous collection of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects and crustaceans. He died in 1821 after less than a year in Java of a liver infection brought on the climate and overexertion. His colleague continued to collect specimens, but died in 1823.

Vouchers:
Mangaia: recorded in the oldest archaeological layer of 1000AD (J) and not recorded after 1200AD (G), Steadman & Kirch (1990) as Vini kuhlii. Atiu: fieldspecimen+photo, 2007/April, G.McCormack, 27 birds reintroduced from Rimatara on 24 April.

References:
None recorded.

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM03a

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