Endangered
Kuhl's Lorikeet
Vini kuhlii
Kuhl's Lorikeet is a parrot in the family Psittacidae (order Psittaciformes) — Vini kuhlii, recorded as Endangered and tied to French Polynesia.
Appearance
It is a fast flying lorikeet with vibrant plumage. A green back, wings and crown, a blue nape and legs and bright red undersides and cheeks.
The average length is 19 centimetres (7.5 in) and the average weight is 55 grams (1.9 oz).
Range and habitat
The Kuhl's lorikeet's habitat is natural tropical moist lowland forests and plantations. In islands denuded of native forests and covered with extensive coconut plantations it is found exclusively in those areas. It was once present in the Cook Islands but is now restricted to islands of French Polynesia (Only found on the island of Rimatara) and has been introduced in Kiribati.
Kuhl's lorikeet, also called the Rimitara lorikeet, Kuhl's lory, manu 'ura (local appellation) or kura (Cook Islands), is a lorikeet in the family Psittaculidae. It is one of several species of Vini lorikeets found in islands ranging across the South Pacific.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Black rats were introduced to their native range by Europeans and are now predators of the lorikeet. Its range contracted greatly after the arrival of humans, until the only surviving natural population was on Rimatara in the Austral Islands of Southern French Polynesia. Like many island species, Kuhl's lorikeet is threatened by introduced black rats.
The species was also introduced to several islands in Kiribati. The last native population was protected by a tapu or taboo by Queen Tamaeva V of Rimatara around 1900.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Kuhl's Lorikeet is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Kuhl's Lorikeet, Wikidata item Q1259444. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
