Mariana Mallard - Extinction

Extinction

The birds declined due to draining of wetlands for agriculture and construction. Hunting pressure was probably heavy, despite a ban on gun ownership under Japanese control (1914–1945), as the birds were unwary to be trapped, and at any rate the gun ban was lifted after World War II (see also below). By the 1940s, flocks of more than a dozen birds were seldom seen. On Guam, the last sightings were in 1949 and 1967 – the latter being a single, possibly vagrant, bird – and on Tinian in 1974. As Lake Susupe offered the most plentiful and least accessible habitat, although it too suffered from pollution by sugar mill wastes, the Saipan population lingered on for a few more years. The Mariana Mallard was listed as federally endangered on June 2, 1977. In 1979, two males and a female were found on Saipan and caught; one male was later released, the last wild bird ever to be encountered. The pair was brought to Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, and later to SeaWorld, San Diego, where it was attempted to have them reproduce in captivity. However, this was unsuccessful and the species became extinct with the death of the last individual in 1981. Surveys were conducted in the following years, but the species was certainly gone by then. It was removed from the USFWS Endangered Species List on February 23, 2004, due to extinction.

Collection of specimens for museums and private collections must have had a temporary impact during the Japanese control over the islands. Although less than 100 specimens are on record, most were taken in the 1930s and 1940s for Japanese collectors; given the rather sedentary habits and small population size of the species, this may have jeopardized local populations to the point of extinction. Outside Japan, 7 specimens (including the type) are in the MNHN, Paris, one in the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, two in the USNM, Washington D.C. and six in the AMNH, New York City. There are reports of additional specimens in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Lisbon.