Portal:Extinction/Previous articles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] 2008-04-09
The Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) or wild pigeon was a species of pigeon that was once the most common bird in North America. It is estimated that there were as many as five billion passenger pigeons in the United States at the time Europeans colonized North America. They lived in enormous flocks, and during migration, it was possible to see flocks of them a mile (1.6 km) wide and 300 miles (500 km) long, taking several days to pass and containing up to a billion birds. The species had not been common in the Pre-Columbian period, until the devastation of the American Indian population by European diseases. During the 19th century, the species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world to extinction. At the time, passenger pigeons had one of the largest groups or flocks of any animal, second only to the desert locust.
Some reduction in numbers occurred as a result of loss of habitat, when the Europeans started settling further inland. However, the primary factor emerged when pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century, resulting in hunting on a massive scale. There was a slow decline in their numbers between about 1800 and 1870, followed by a catastrophic decline between 1870 and 1890.[6] In 1896, the final flock of 250,000 were killed by American sportsmen knowing that it was the last flock of that size. Afterwards passenger pigeons were rare and beyond the point of recovery. 'Martha', thought to be the world's last passenger pigeon, died on 1 September 1914 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In the 18th century, the passenger pigeon in Europe was known to the French as "tourtre" but in New France, the North American bird was called "tourte". In modern French, the bird is known as the pigeon migrateur.
In Algonquian languages, it was called amimi by the Lenape and omiimii by the Ojibwe. The term "passenger pigeon" in English derives from the French word "passager" meaning to pass by.
[edit] 2008-03-10
The Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis) is a member of the woodpecker family Picidae. Due to its close relationship and similarity to the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, it is sometimes also called "Mexican Ivorybill" but this name is also used for the Pale-billed Woodpecker. If it is not extinct, it is the world's largest woodpecker species. The large (60 cm/23 in) and conspicuous bird has for long been known to the native inhabitants of Mexico and was called cuauhtotomomi in Nahuatl, uagam by the Tepehuán, and cumecócari by the Tarahumara.
The male had a red-sided crest, but was otherwise black, apart from the inner primaries, which were white-tipped, white secondaries, and a white scapular stripe which unlike in the Ivory-billed Woodpecker did not extend on the neck. The female was similar but the crest was all black. It was once widespread and, until the early 1950s, not uncommon throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, from western Sonora and Chihuahua southwards to Jalisco and Michoacan.
[edit] 2008-02-13
The Crested Shelduck or Korean Crested Shelduck, Tadorna cristata, is a species of bird in the duck family. It is critically endangered and believed by some to be extinct. The male Crested Shelduck has a greenish-black crown, breast, primaries, and tail, while the rest of its face, chin, and throat are brownish black. The male's belly, undertail coverts, and flanks are a dark grey with black striations. The upper wing coverts are white, while its speculum is an iridescent green. The female has a white eye ring, black crest, white face, chin, throat, neck, and uppers wing coverts and a dark brown body with white striations. Both sexes also have a distinctive green tuft of feathers protruding from the head.
Very little is known about this bird because of the limited number of observations of this species. It apparently bred in Korea and eastern Russia and was probably a relict species that had a wider distribution in prehistoric times. Some think that this species is extinct, although occasional sightings are reported, including a number of recent reports from the interior wetlands of China. Due to the persistent reports of the species' survival, it is therefore listed as critically endangered. However, it has not been definitively sighted since 1964.
[edit] 2008-01-14
Steller's Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is an extinct, large sirenian mammal formerly found near the Asiatic coast of the Bering Sea. It was discovered in the Commander Islands in 1741 by the German naturalist Georg Steller, who was traveling with the explorer Vitus Bering. A small population lived in the arctic waters around Bering Island and nearby Copper Island. However, prior to the arrival of humans they lived all along the North Pacific coast. The sea cow grew up to 7.9 meters (25.9 ft) long[1] and weighed up to three tons,[2] much larger than the manatee or dugong. Steller's work contains two contradictory weights: 4 and 24.3 tons. The true value may lie between these figures.[3] It looked somewhat like a large seal, but had two stout forelimbs and a whale-like tail. According to Steller, "The animal never comes out on shore, but always lives in the water. Its skin is black and thick, like the bark of an old oak..., its head in proportion to the body is small..., it has no teeth, but only two flat white bones—one above, the other below". It was completely tame, according to Steller. They fed on a variety of kelp. Wherever sea cows had been feeding, heaps of stalks and roots of kelp were washed ashore.
[edit] 2007-12-20
The Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius) was a striking black and white eider-like sea duck that was never known to be common, and is believed to be the first bird to go extinct in North America after 1500. The last Labrador Duck is believed to have been seen at Elmira, New York on December 12, 1878; the last preserved specimen was shot in 1875 on Long Island. It was thought to breed in Labrador, although no nests were ever described, and it wintered from Nova Scotia to as far south as Chesapeake Bay.
It was also known as a Pied Duck, a vernacular name that it shared with the Surf Scoter and the Common Goldeneye (and even the American Oystercatcher), a fact that has led to difficulties in interpreting old records of these species, and also as Skunk Duck. Both names refer to the male's striking white/black piebald coloration. Yet another common name was Sand Shoal Duck, referring to its habit of feeding in shallow water. The closest evolutionary relatives of the Labrador Duck are apparently the scoters (Melanitta) (Livezey, 1995).
[edit] 2007-11-04
The Stephens Island Wren (Xenicus lyalli) is famous for being (erroneously) considered the only known species to be entirely wiped out by a single living being. This bird was a flightless, nocturnal native of Stephens Island, New Zealand which fed on insects.
According to the common lore, the entire population was killed by the lighthouse keeper's cat named Tibbles in 1894, but this is not what actually happened (see below). The scientific name commemorates the assistant lighthouse keeper, David Lyall, who brought the bird to the attention of science. Originally, it was described as a distinct genus, Traversia, in honor of naturalist and curio dealer Henry H. Travers who procured many specimens from Lyall, but usually it is considered to be part of the Xenicus "wrens", which are not wrens at all, but a similar-looking New Zealand lineage of primitive passerines, better referred to as acanthisittids.
[edit] 2007-09-12
The Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis) was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States. It was found from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, and lived in old forests along rivers. It was the only species at the time classified in the genus Conuropsis. It was called puzzi la nee ("head of yellow") or pot pot chee by the Seminole and kelinky in Chikasha (Snyder & Russell, 2002).
The last wild specimen was killed in Okeechobee County in Florida in 1904, and the last captive bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918. This was the male specimen "Incas," who died within a year of his mate "Lady Jane." It was not until 1939, however, that it was determined that the Carolina parakeet had ceased to be.
[edit] 2007-06-30
The Bali tiger (Panthera tigris balica), also called the Balinese tiger, is an extinct subspecies of tiger found solely on the small Indonesian island of Bali. The tiger was one of three sub-species of tiger found in Indonesia along with the Javan tiger (also extinct) and Sumatran tiger (severely endangered)
It was the smallest of the tiger sub-species; the last tiger to be shot was in 1925, and the sub-species was declared extinct on September 27, 1937. Given the small size of the island, and limited forest cover, the original population could never have been large, and it is considered unlikely that any survive today.
[edit] 2007-03-24
The Baiji (traditional Chinese: 白鱀豚; pinyin: báijìtún) (Lipotes vexillifer, Lipotes meaning "left behind", vexillifer "flag bearer") was a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China. Nicknamed "Goddess of the Yangtze" (長江女神) in China, the dolphin was also called Chinese River Dolphin, Yangtze River Dolphin, Beiji, Pai-chi (Wade-Giles), Whitefin Dolphin and Yangtze Dolphin. It is not to be confused with the Chinese White Dolphin (中華白海豚).
The Baiji population declined drastically in recent decades as China industrialized and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transportation, and hydroelectricity. Efforts were made to conserve the species, but a late 2006 expedition failed to find any Baiji in the river. Organizers declared the Baiji "functionally extinct", which arguably makes it the first aquatic mammal species to become extinct since the 1950s.
[edit] 2007-01-29
The aurochs (Bos primigenius) is a very large, extinct type of cattle, originally prevalent in Europe. The word aurochs is both singular and plural; alternative plural forms are aurochsen or urus. The animal's original scientific name, Bos primigenius, translated the German term Auerochse or Urochs, literally "primeval ox", or "proto-ox". The original range of the aurochs was from the British Isles, to Africa, the Middle East, India and central Asia. By the 13th century A.D., the aurochs' range was restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania and East Prussia. The right to hunt large animals on any land was restricted to nobles and gradually to the royal household. As the population of aurochs declined, hunting ceased but the royal court still required gamekeepers to provide open fields for the aurochs to graze in. The gamekeepers were exempted from local taxes in exchange for their service and a decree made poaching an aurochs punishable by death. In 1564, the gamekeepers knew of only 38 animals, according to the royal survey. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland. The skull was later taken by the Swedish Army and is now the property of Livrustkammaren in Stockholm.
[edit] 2006-12-14
The Laysan Rail or Laysan Crake (Porzana palmeri) was a tiny inhabitant of the Northwest Hawaiian Island of Laysan. This small island was and still is an important seabird colony, and sustained a number of endemic species, including the rail. It became extinct due to habitat loss by feral rabbits, and ultimately World War II. Its scientific name honours Henry Palmer, who collected in the Hawaiian Islands for Walter Rothschild.
[edit] 2006-11-13
The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) is a large carnivorous marsupial native to Australia which is thought to have gone extinct in the 20th century.
Locally, it is known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie ("tazzy") Tiger or simply the Tiger.
Although it is only one of many Australian mammals to have become extinct following European settlement of the continent, it is the largest and by far the most famous.
Like the tigers and wolves of other continents (both placental carnivores and therefore not closely related to the marsupial Thylacine), the Thylacine was a top-level predator, and in size and general form quite closely resembled the Northern Hemisphere predators it was originally named after.
[edit] 2006-10-10
The Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) is an extinct bird. It was the only species in the genus Pinguinus, flightless giant auks from the Atlantic, to survive until recent times, but is extinct today. It was also known as garefowl (from the Old Norse geirfugl), or penguin (see etymology below).
In the past, the Great Auk was found in great numbers on islands off eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain, but it was eventually hunted to extinction. Remains found in Floridan middens suggest that at least occasionally, birds ventured that far south in winter, possibly as recently as in the 17th century (Weigel, 1958).
[edit] 2006-09-30
Moa were giant flightless birds native to New Zealand. They are unique in having no wings, not even small wings, unlike other ratites. Ten species of varying sizes are known, with the largest species, the giant moa (Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae), reaching about 3 m (10 ft) in height and about 250 kg (550 lb) in weight. They were the dominant herbivores in the New Zealand forest ecosystem.
