The Eskimo curlew painted by Archibald Thorburn.
The Eskimo curlew is (or perhaps, ‘was’) a small migratory shorebird with a long curved beak, perfect for searching shorelines and prairie grass for worms, grasshoppers and other insects, as well as goodies including berries. Described as cinnamon-colored, the bird nested in the Arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada during the summer and in the winter migrated en masse as far south as the Argentine plains, known as the pampas. Despite once numbering in the hundreds of thousands (and perhaps even in the millions), the Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis) today may well be extinct. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has decided to conduct a final evaluation of the species to determine whether its status should be moved from Critically Endangered to Extinct, reports Reuters.
The last sighting confirmed by the USFWS was in 1987 in Nebraska, though unconfirmed sightings have continued since. No confirmation of the bird has been made in South America, however, since the 1930s.
The story of the Eskimo curlew’s decline is similar to that of the extinct passenger pigeon: from filling the sky to nearly gone within a few decades. Like the passenger pigeon, the Eskimo curlew was decimated by hunting during the 19th Century. Following the ban of hunting on certain migratory birds in 1916, the bird did not make a comeback. Researchers believe the loss of plains habitat to agriculture as well as the extinction of one of its preferred grasshopper prey made it increasingly difficult for the bird to survive. If the bird still lives, scientists expect it would only be in small, cryptic populations.
This is the first formal review by the USFWS of the Eskimo curlew and will be conducted by researchers in Alaska. Such reviews typically take a year.
Including the Eskimo curlew, there are 8 species of curlew birds in the world. Another of these curlews may be nearing extinction, however. The slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), which once ranged from Canada to Japan, is currently listed as Critically Endangered with the last confirmed sighting in Hungary, 2001. Researchers estimate there are less than 50 birds alive today.
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