Abstract
The New Zealand owlet‐nightjar (Aegotheles novaezealandiae) was a small (c. 150 g), almost flightless endemic bird that was widely distributed before human settlement. It was extinct before European settlement and has not so far been found definitely in a Polynesian cultural context. A series of accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages on gelatin from owlet‐nightjar bones from non‐cultural deposits was analysed using Bayesian statistics. The results indicate that the owlet‐nightjar may have begun to decline before Polynesian settlement. Such a decline would be consistent with the effects of predation by a new predator—most probably the Pacific rat Rattus exulans.
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