Ectopistes migratorius

– Extinct

Taxonomy

Kingdom:

ANIMALIA

Phylum:

CHORDATA

Class:

AVES

Order:

COLUMBIFORMES

Family:

COLUMBIDAE

Scientific Name:

Ectopistes migratorius

Species Authority:

(Linnaeus, 1766)

Common Name/s:

English

—

PASSENGER PIGEON

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

EX ver 3.1 (2001)

Year Assessed:

2004

Assessor/s:

BirdLife International

Evaluator/s:

Stattersfield, A. (BirdLife International Red List Authority) & Brooks, T. (Conservation International)

Justification:

Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius was found forest in eastern and central Canada and the USA, occasionally wandering south to Mexico and Cuba. Over the 19th century, the species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world to extinction. This was ultimately due to the effects of widespread clearance of its mast food, with the proximate causes being Newcastle disease, extensive hunting and the breakdown of social facilitation. The last wild bird was shot in 1900, and the last captive bird died in 1914 in the Cincinnati Zoo.

History:

1988	-	Extinct (BirdLife International 2004)
1994	-	Extinct (Groombridge 1994)
2000	-	Extinct (BirdLife International 2000)

Geographic Range

Range Description:

Ectopistes migratorius was found forest in eastern and central Canada and the USA, occasionally wandering south to Mexico and Cuba⁴. Over the 19th century, the species crashed from being one of the most abundant birds in the world to extinction⁴. This was ultimately due to the effects of widespread clearance of its mast food², with the proximate causes being Newcastle disease, extensive hunting¹ and the breakdown of social facilitation³. The last wild bird was shot in 1900, and the last captive bird died in 1914 in the Cincinnati Zoo⁵.

Countries:

Regionally extinct vagrant:

Cuba; Mexico

Regionally extinct:

Canada; United States

Habitat and Ecology

System:

Terrestrial

Threats

List of Threats:

1.9	Habitat Loss/Degradation - Unknown causes (past)
2.4	Invasive alien species (directly affecting the species) - Pathogens/parasites (past)
3.1	Harvesting (hunting/gathering) - Food (past)
9.10	Intrinsic factors - Other (past)

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (compilers and editors) 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Bird Reference Citations. The numbers inserted in the text accounts above (usually in bold) refer to references. For further details on these references, click on the BirdLife International link above to go to the specific species account on the BirdLife web site. In some cases, particularly in the taxonomic notes, the references are cited using the author names. Details for these can be found on the BirdLife International web site at the following two places: For References from A–L. For References from M–Z.

BirdLife International. 2000. Threatened Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, U.K.

BirdLife International. 2004 Threatened Birds of the World 2004. CD-ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, U.K.

Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Citation:	BirdLife International 2004. Ectopistes migratorius. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 06 September 2008.
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