Tahiti rail plantations. Its diet appears to have consisted mainly of insects and occasionally copra (coconut meat). The extinction of the Tahiti rail was probably due to predation by humans and introduced cats and rats. It appears to have become extinct some time after 1844 on Tahiti, and perhaps as late as the 1930s on Mehetia. The Tahiti rail was found on the South Pacific island of Tahiti (part of the Society Islands archipelago) by naturalists who were part of the British explorer James Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775). The bird was illustrated by Georg Forster, who accompanied his father,
O Tahiti Nui Freedom O Tahiti Nui Freedom The O Tahiti Nui Freedom project, initiated by , is an outrigger sailing canoe built for an expedition in which she reversed the path of Polynesian expansion through the South Pacific in 2010. The design of the "O Tahiti Nui Freedom" was inspired by a historical plan drawn in Tahiti by Admiral Paris around 1820 (standard plank of wood and stitch construction). The design was then reviewed and modernized by a group of naval architects in order to meet the standards of modern safety while respecting the line and form of Paris' 1820 plan. This modified