Labrador Duck

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Labrador Duck
Stuffed specimens, AMNH
Conservation status

Extinct  (c. 1878)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Subfamily: Merginae
Genus: Camptorhynchus
Bonaparte, 1838
Species: C. labradorius
Binomial name
Camptorhynchus labradorius
Gmelin, 1789

The Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius) is an extinct North American bird.

Habitat

The Labrador Duck migrated annually, wintering off the coasts of New Jersey, New Hampshire and New England—where it favoured southern sandy coasts, bays, and inlets—and breeding in Labrador in the summer. John James Audubon's son reported seeing a nest belonging to the species in Labrador, but it is uncertain where it bred. Some believe that it may have laid its eggs in the islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.[2]

Other names

Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans of a female and male
Schematic of male
Illustration by John James Audubon

The Labrador Duck 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).[3]

Diet

The Labrador Duck fed on small molluscs, and some fishermen reported catching it on fishing lines baited with mussels.[2] The structure of the bill was highly modified from that of most ducks, having a wide, flattened tip with numerous lamellae inside. In this way it is considered an ecological counterpart of the North Pacific/North Asian Steller's Eider. The beak was also particularly soft, and may have been used to probe through sediment for food.[2]

Another, completely unrelated, duck with similar (but even more specialized) bill morphology is the Australian Pink-eared Duck, which feeds largely on plankton, but also mollusks; the condition in the Labrador Duck probably resembled that in the Blue Duck most in outward appearance.

Extinction

It is thought that the Labrador Duck was always rare, but between 1850 and 1870, populations waned further.[2] Its extinction is still not fully explained. Although hunted for food, this duck was considered to taste bad, would rot quickly and fetched a low price. Consequently, it was not sought much by hunters. However, it is thought that the eggs may have been over-harvested, and it may have been subject to depredations by the feather trade in its breeding area as well. Another possible factor in the bird's extinction was the decline in mussels and other shellfish on which they are believed to have fed in their winter quarters, due to growth of population and industry on the Eastern Seaboard. Although all sea ducks readily feed on shallow-water molluscs, no Western Atlantic bird species seems to have been as dependent on such food as the Labrador Duck.[4]

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Camptorhynchus labradorius". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Flannery, Tim (2001). A Gap in Nature. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0871137976. 
  3. ↑ Livezey, Bradley C. (1995). "Phylogeny and Evolutionary Ecology of Modern Seaducks (Anatidae: Mergini)". Condor 97 (1): 233–255. doi:10.2307/1368999. 
  4. ↑ Phillips, John C. (1922–1926): A Natural History of Ducks. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, volume 4, pp. 57–63.

Further reading

  • Chilton, Glen (2009): The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction. Simon and Schuster, ISBN 1-43910247-3.
  • Cokinos, Christopher (2000): Hope is the Thing with Feathers. New York: Putnam, pp. 281–304. ISBN 1-58542-006-9
  • Ducher, William (1894): The Labrador Duck – another specimen, with additional data respecting extant specimens. Auk 11: 4–12. PDF fulltext
  • Forbush, Edward Howe (1912): A History of the Game Birds, Wild-Fowl and Shore Birds of Massachusetts and Adjacent States. Boston: Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, pp. 411–416.
  • Fuller, Errol (2001): Extinct Birds, Comstock Publishing, ISBN 0-8014-3954-X, pp. 85–87.
  • Madge, Steve & Burn, Hilary (1988): Waterfowl. An identification guide to the ducks, geese and swans of the world. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 265–266. ISBN 0-395-46727-6

External links

See also

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