Malagasy Shelduck

The Madagascar Goose ( alopochen sirabensis ) is an extinct species of the subfamily of the half geese. She was endemic to Madagascar. Some authors suggest that it was merely a subspecies of the extinct Mauritian also goose.

The type alopochen sirabensis was described in 1897 based on subfossil bones of the British paleontologist Charles William Andrews. The bones of the animal were determined age in 1997 with the help of accelerator mass spectrometry. Accordingly, the species died out only in the Holocene. The dating of the bones is 1380 ( / - 90 years). The reasons of extinction are unknown.