[00:00.00]Fortunately for the Stephens Island tuatara,
[00:03.04]it did survive a brief mammal invasion.
[00:05.93]But for some of the other wildlife here,
[00:08.14]the invasion was rather more catastrophic.
[00:11.35]The island had been uninhabited and largely ignored,
[00:14.68]but that all changed with the construction
[00:17.38]of this lighthouse back in 1894.
[00:21.45]when the newly installed keeper,a Mr Lyall,
[00:24.98]found an unusual wren on the island,
[00:27.57]he sent a specimen to London for identification.
[00:31.19]Like many island birds,
[00:33.16]it was flightless.
[00:34.97]And perhaps that's why it wasn't Mr Lyall
[00:37.86]who first discovered the bird,
[00:39.69]but his four-legged companion.
[00:42.15]Tibbles proved to be a very efficient specimen collector.
[00:46.47]So much so,
[00:47.57]in fact, that one year later,
[00:50.16]when the bird was officially declared a new species,
[00:53.20]Mr Lyall had to regretfully inform the scientific community at large that
[00:58.11]the species was now extinct.
[01:02.29]In truth,
[01:03.06]Tibbles wasn't the only feline to blame,
[01:05.38]but the ease with which the Stephens Island wren had been dispatched was alarming.