Stewart Island Shag

The Stewart Island shag (Leucocarbo chalconotus; Māori: matapo) is a species of shag found on New Zealand's South Island and Stewart Island. The Stewart Island shag has sometimes been split into two species, the Foveaux shag and the Otago shag. == Taxonomy == The Stewart Island shag was formally described and illustrated in 1845 by the English zoologist George Gray based on a specimen collected by Percy Earl in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. Gray placed the new species in the genus Gracalus and coined the binomial name Gracalus chalconotus. The specific epithet is from Ancient Greek χαλκονωτος/khalkonōtos meaning "bronze-backed". The Stewart Island shag is now one of the 15 shags placed in the genus Leucocarbo, which was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Two subspecies are recognised: L. c. chalconotus (Gray, GR, 1845) – east South Island (New Zealand) L. c. stewarti (Ogilvie-Grant, 1898) – south South Island and Stewart Island (New Zealand) The Stewart Island shag has sometimes been split into two species with the subspecies L. c. chalconotus known as the Otago shag and the subspecies L. c. stewarti known as the Foveaux shag. The species was split based on…