Extinction
In December 1802 François Péron, a French naturalist who was part of Baudin's expedition, visited the island and was the last person to record descriptions of the King Island Emu. The little we know today about the King Island Emu stems from interviews Péron conducted with sealers.
Two or three individuals were brought back to France in 1804 and were kept in captivity in the Jardin des Plantes, the last one dying in 1822. One of these last birds remains today as the sole surviving skin in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Soon after this bird was discovered, English sealers settled on the island because of the abundance of elephant seals. At the time of the death of the last captive bird, the species was long gone from King Island, having been killed off by hunting and, apparently, fires started by visiting sailors. The interviews with the sealers suggested why this bird did not survive for long. Péron described how dogs were purpose-trained to hunt down emu and a variety of cooking recipes are mentioned; one of the sealers even claimed to have killed no fewer than 300 emu. Today we know that several King Island Emu specimens were sent to France as part of Baudin's expedition, several of which survive as specimens in museums throughout Europe today.
Read more about this topic: King Island Emu
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