Guadalupe Caracara
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| iGuadalupe Caracara | ||||||||||||||
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| Polyborus lutosus Ridgway, 1876 |
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Polyborus plancus lutosus |
The Guadalupe Caracara (Polyborus lutosus) is an extinct member of the raptor family of birds. It inhabited Mexico's Guadalupe Island until the beginning of the 20th century. Specimens are available for display in Chicago, Washington, and London. The Crested Caracara is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Guadalupe Caracara", because the extinct birds are considered a subspecies of the extant form by some.
It was described as evil and vicious by early observers. It was driven to extinction by a hunting and poisoning campaign led by goatherders on Guadalupe Island. In March 1897, only one bird was encountered (Kaeding, 1905), but additional members of the species survived. The last living specimens were recorded shot on December 1st, 1900, by collector Rollo Beck; it seems that he killed all of the 11 birds he encountered except two, believing from their fearlessness that they were common. There was one more (unconfirmed) sighting in 1903[citation needed].
The Guadalupe Caracara is one of the few species that were intentionally rendered extinct by humans; in its particular case, it was demanded by goat farmers that the birds were to be killed off as they occasionally fed on young goats (though the role of Polyborus lutosus as a predator of goats was much exaggerated). It stands to note that its erstwhile home was later devastated by tens of thousands of goats gone feral, leading to the extinction of several endemic species caused by the near-total destruction of habitat.
Around 35 specimens (skins, skeletons and 2 eggs) remain in public collections today (Luther, 1996).
[edit] References
- Fuller, Errol (2000): Extinct Birds (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York. ISBN 0-19-850837-9
- Greenway, James C. Jr. (1967): Guadelupe Island Carcara. In: Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World (2nd ed.): 183-195. Dover Publications, New York.
- Kaeding, Henry B. (1905): Birds from the West Coast of Lower California and Adjacent Islands (Part II). Condor 7(4): 134-138. PDF fulltext
- King, Warren B. (editor) (1981): Endangered Birds of the World; The ICBP Bird Red Data Book: Preamble 8. ISBN 0-87474-584-5
- Luther, Dieter (1996): Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt (Die neue Brehm-Bücherei 424) (4th ed.). [in German] Westarp-Wissenschaften, Magdeburg; Spektrum, Heidelberg. ISBN 3-89432-213-6
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