[1] The only known Tongoenas specimens were found in a cave, which preserved subfossil remains.

The large bird was thought to have been hunted and consumed by early human settlers, when they reached the Pacific Islands.

Lead author David W. Steadman states:[2] Some of these trees have big, fleshy fruit, clearly adapted for a big pigeon to gulp whole and pass the seeds,And;[2] Of the fruit-eating pigeons, this bird is the largest and could have gulped bigger canopy fruit than any others.

It takes co-evolution to the extremeTongoenas was able to gulp fruits as large as a standard-sized tennis ball.

Since Tongoenas co-evolved with guava, mango and the chinaberry lineages, Tongoenas served as a crucial seed disperser, alongside an extinct Ducula species, Ducula shutleri.