| Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANIMALIA | CHORDATA | AVES | GRUIFORMES | RALLIDAE |
| Scientific Name: | Fulica caribaea | |||
| Species Authority: | Ridgway, 1884 | |||
Common Name/s:
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| Red List Category & Criteria: | Near Threatened ver 3.1 | ||||||
| Year Assessed: | 2010 | ||||||
| Assessor/s: | BirdLife International | ||||||
| Reviewer/s: | Calvert, R., Symes, A., Butchart, S. | ||||||
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Justification: This species is classified as Near Threatened because it is declining moderately rapidly throughout its range owing to hunting and wetland drainage. |
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| History: |
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| Range Description: | Fulica caribaea is an uncommon and local resident in northern Venezuela (especially eastern Falcon), on Haiti, Dominican Republic (where it has declined markedly during the last century, mirrored throughout the region) and Puerto Rico (to USA), and a rare resident on Jamaica, British Virgin Islands (to UK), US Virgin Islands (to USA) and Colombia3,4,5. It is a rare wanderer in the Lesser Antilles with a few recent breeding records on Martinique (to France) and Guadeloupe (to France), regular recent breeding on Antigua and Barbuda (Antigua)6, and breeding is also suspected on Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago1,3. It formerly bred on St Kitts and Nevis, but is now only an uncommon migrant, and it is a very rare non-breeding transient on Cuba with other records from Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands (to UK), Montserrat (to UK), St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla (to UK), north-west Venezuela and Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao)1,2,4. The population in the Dominican Republic is estimated at a minimum of 5,000-10,000 individuals9, though the global population size is unknown. |
| Countries: |
Native:
Anguilla; Antigua and Barbuda; Aruba; Barbados; Cuba; Dominican Republic; Guadeloupe; Haiti; Jamaica; Martinique; Netherlands Antilles; Puerto Rico; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Trinidad and Tobago; Turks and Caicos Islands; Venezuela; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.
Vagrant:
Colombia; Dominica; Grenada; Montserrat; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin (French part); Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
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| Range Map: | Click here to open the map viewer and explore range. |
| Population: | Although the population in the Dominican Republic has been estimated at a minimum of 5,000-10,000 individuals (D. Wege in litt. 2010), there are currently no estimates for the global population size. |
| Population Trend: |
Decreasing
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| Habitat and Ecology: | It is found on freshwater lakes, ponds, marshes and less frequently coastal brackish lagoons from lowlands to 500 m in Venezuela4, and in similar habitats elsewhere. |
| Systems: | Freshwater; Marine |
| Major Threat(s): | It has suffered a marked decline throughout the Caribbean as a result of hunting pressures (including the taking of eggs for local consumption), habitat degradation and introduced predators3. Recent research suggests that these threats have not abated, recording drainage or land reclamation as the most common threat, closely followed by hunting (including egg collection) and pollution. Only at four sites out of 49 were there no recorded threats8. |
| Conservation Actions: |
Conservation Actions Underway None is known. Conservation Actions Proposed Conduct a thorough population survey throughout its range. Conduct a public education campaign to discourage draining of wetlands and hunting of wetland birds. Provide alternatives to taking eggs and adults from the wild. Monitor populations at key sites throughout the region. |
| Citation: | BirdLife International 2010. Fulica caribaea. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 09 February 2012. |
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