History
It was described as "evil" and "vicious" by early observers. It was driven to extinction by a hunting and poisoning campaign led by goat herders on Guadalupe Island. In 1876 the species was common throughout the island. However, in March 1897, only one bird was encountered, but additional members of the species survived. On December 1, 1900 collector Rollo Beck encountered 11 and preserved nine as scientific specimens. He may have shot the last of the caracaras on Guadalupe Island, believing from their fearlessness and ease of finding them that they were common. There was one more (unconfirmed) sighting in 1903; the bird was certainly gone in 1906.
The Guadalupe Caracara is one of the few species that were intentionally rendered extinct by humans. In its particular case, it was demanded by goat farmers that the birds were to be killed off as they occasionally fed on young goats (though the role of the caracara as a predator of goats was much exaggerated). It stands to note that its erstwhile home was at that time being devastated by tens of thousands of goats gone feral, leading to the extinction of several endemic species caused by the near-total destruction of habitat.
In an apparent case of coextinction, the ischnoceran louse Acutifrons caracarensis is only known from the Guadalupe Caracara.
Around 35 specimens (skins, skeletons and 2 eggs) remain in public collections today. Specimens are available for display in Chicago, Washington, and London.
Read more about this topic: Guadalupe Caracara
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)