The Atitlán grebe (''Podilymbus gigas''), also known as giant grebe, giant pied-billed grebe, or poc, is an extinct water bird, a relative of the

pied-billed grebe The pied-billed grebe (''Podilymbus podiceps'') is a species of the grebe family of water birds. Because the Atitlán grebe (''Podilymbus gigas'') has become extinct, the Pied-Billed Grebe is now the sole extant member of the genus ''Podilymbus'' ...

. It was endemic at the

Lago de Atitlán __NOTOC__ Lago, which means "lake" in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Galician, may refer to: Places *Lago, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy *Lago, Mexico, a municipality zone in the State of Mexico *Lago District, a ''dis ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

at an altitude of 1700 m

asl American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

. It was described in 1929 by Ludlow Griscom based on a specimen collected in 1926 and had been overlooked in the past. American ecologist

Anne LaBastille Anne LaBastille (November 20, 1933 – July 1, 2011)Hevesi, Dennis ''The New York Times'', July 9, 2011. Retrieved 11 Dec 2011 was an American author, ecologist, and photographer. She was the author of more than a dozen books, including ''Woodswo ...

observed the decline of this species over a period of 25 years. It was declared extinct by 1990.

Description

The Atitlán grebe reached a length of about 46–50 cm. The call and appearance were similar to the much smaller pied-billed grebe. The bill was large and pied but the color varied from white in the spring to brown in other seasons. The plumage was mainly dark brown with white-flecked flanks and grey on the ears. The underparts were dark grey flecked with white. The head was almost black and the neck was glossy flecked with dark brown in the spring and white in the winter. The legs were slaty grey. The bill had a bold black vertical band in the middle. The irises were brown. It had small wings and was flightless.

Reproduction

They laid a clutch of 4 to 5 white eggs. Both parents shared the rearing of the hatchlings.

Extinction

The decline of the Atitlán grebe began in 1958 and again in 1960 after smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') and

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

(''Micropterus salmoides'') were introduced into Lake Atitlán. These

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

reduced the crabs and fish which the grebes depended on for food and killed grebe chicks. The population of the Atitlán grebe declined from 200 individuals in 1960 to 80 in 1965. Thanks to the conservation efforts of Anne LaBastille, in 1966 a refuge was established where this species was able to rebound. The population recovered to 210 in 1973. Unfortunately after the

1976 Guatemala earthquake The 1976 Guatemala earthquake struck on February 4 at with a moment magnitude of 7.5. The shock was centered on the Motagua Fault, about 160 km northeast of Guatemala City at a depth of near the town of Los Amates in the department of Izab ...

, the lake bed fractured. An underwater drain led to a fall of the water level and to a further severe decrease of the number of grebes. In 1983 only 32 individuals were left, of which the largest part were hybrids with the pied-billed grebe. The last two birds were seen in 1989, and after they disappeared the Atitlán grebe was declared officially extinct.

References

*Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001). ''A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals'', Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. . *Errol Fuller (2000). ''Extinct Birds'', *Anne LaBastille (1990). ''Mama Poc: An Ecologist's Account of the Extinction of a Species'', W. W. Norton & Company,

External links

Status of the Endemic Atitlan Grebe of Guatemala: Is it extinct?
{{Taxonbar, from=Q526150 Extinct flightless birds Podilymbus Birds of Guatemala Endemic fauna of Guatemala Natural history of Guatemala Bird extinctions since 1500 Birds described in 1929 Extinct birds of North America

Description

Reproduction

Extinction

See also

References

External links