The extinction of the Saint Helena hoopoe is directly attributable to the effects of colonization, including the introduction of predators like rats and cats,[2] as well as being hunted by humans.

[8] Given the various pressures facing the species, it was not likely to have survived for long past the discovery of Saint Helena island in 1502; its final recorded sighting was in 1550, though it may have lasted into 1640.

Storrs L. Olson, who described the Saint Helena hoopoe, drew parallels between the new species and the wrestler – "likewise a giant of its kind and as necessarily committed to the earth".

[15] The first evidence of this species was discovered in 1963 by the British zoologist Philip Ashmole in the Dry Gut sediments east of Saint Helena.

However, further research in 1975 by American paleontologist Storrs L. Olson unearthed more remains, including coracoids, skull elements, and the left femur, which prompted a reexamination of the older evidence and the nomination of a new species.

[3] The British Museum of Natural History, as of 1977, was in possession of at least one femur from a Saint Helena hoopoe, slightly larger than Olson described in the nominal paper.