Spectacled cormorant
| Spectacled cormorant | ||||||||||
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Spectacled cormorant ( Phalacrocorax perspicillatus ) |
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| Phalacrocorax perspicillatus | ||||||||||
| Pallas , 1811 |
The spectacled cormorant ( Phalacrocorax perspicillatus ) was the largest bird in the family of cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae). It is the only extinct species in this family.
discovery
The bird was first discovered by the German doctor and natural scientist Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741 during the Second Kamchatka Expedition with the Danish researcher Vitus Bering on the Bering Island , the largest of the commanders' islands in the Northwest Pacific. With their ship St. Peter they stranded on the island on November 5, 1741.
Distribution and characteristics
There is little information about the spectacled cormorant. Its distribution area was very narrow. Spectacled cormorants were endemic to Bering Island, probably on the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula and on some neighboring islands. 120,000 years ago the range reached as far as Japan. According to Steller, the bird was still to be found frequently in 1741. Like most cormorants, it mainly fed on fish. Its plumage color was predominantly black. He was a very slow moving and awkward bird. According to Steller, his flying skills were not well developed.
die out
Due to its inexperience with humans, the spectacled cormorant could easily be captured and killed. Vitus Bering and many of his men died on Bering Island during the long winter. In order not to starve to death, the surviving sailors and stellers hunted the birds. According to Steller, the spectacled cormorant weighed around three to four kilograms and fed three men. The surviving birds later became easy prey for whalers, fur traders and the Aleutians who were brought to the island by the Russian-American Company . Presumably the spectacled cormorant died out in the middle of the 19th century. Leonhard Hess Stejneger visited the small distribution area in 1882. According to the stories of the locals, the spectacled cormorant has not been sighted for thirty years. The final refuge was a small island called Aij Kamen. The bird became extinct about 100 years after it was first discovered.
Only two skeletons of the spectacled cormorant, Steller's notes and seven specimens remain. One is in Leiden (Netherlands), two in Tring (England), one in Dresden (Germany), another in Helsinki (Finland) and two in Saint Petersburg (Russia).
literature
- Paul A. Johnsgard: Cormorants, Darters, and Pelicans of the World , 1993 - ISBN 1560982160 (English)
supporting documents
- ↑ Junya Watanabe, Hiroshige Matsuoka, Yoshikazu Hasegawa. Pleistocene fossils from Japan show that the recently extinct Spectacled Cormorant (Phalacrocorax perspicillatus) was a relict. The Auk , 2018; 135 (4): 895 DOI: 10.1642 / AUK-18-54.1
Web links
- Information about the spectacled cormorant ( memento of October 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Phalacrocorax perspicillatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 20 of 2008.