The Jamaican petrel (''Pterodroma caribbaea'') is a small possibly

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

in the

gadfly petrel The gadfly petrels or ''Pterodroma'' are a genus of about 35 species of petrels, part of the seabird order Procellariiformes. The gadfly petrels are named for their speedy weaving flight, as if evading gadflies (horseflies). The flight action is ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

, '' Pterodroma''. It is related to the

black-capped petrel The black-capped petrel (''Pterodroma hasitata''), also known as the diablotín, is a small seabird native to the West Indies in the genus '' Pterodroma''. It is a long-winged petrel with a grey-brown back and wings, with a white nape and rump. ...

(''P. hasitata'').

Conservation

This species was last collected in 1879, and was searched for without success between 1996 and 2000. However, it cannot yet be classified as extinct because nocturnal petrels are notoriously difficult to record, and it may still occur on

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

and

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

. If it is extinct, the most likely cause is due to predation by introduced

mongooses A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family is currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to so ...

and

rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

Parasites

Several species of

lice Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

are known to have parasitized the Jamaica and black-capped petrels. If the former is extinct, one of these lice, the

phtilopterid The Philopteridae are a family of Ischnocera, chewing lice mostly parasitic on birds. The taxonomy and systematics of the group are in need of revision; the Philopteridae are almost certainly paraphyletic. Genera Some notable species are al ...

'' Saemundssonia jamaicensis'' may be

coextinct Coextinction and cothreatened refer to the phenomena of the loss or decline of a host species resulting in the loss or endangerment of an other species that depends on it, potentially leading to cascading effects across trophic levels. The term or ...

, as it has not been found on other birds.

References

*Mey, Eberhard (1990): Eine neue ausgestorbene Vogel-Ischnozere von Neuseeland, ''Huiacola extinctus'' (Insecta, Phthiraptera). ''Zoologischer Anzeiger'' 224(1/2): 49–73.

PDF fulltext

External links

Pterodroma">Jamaican petrel The Jamaican petrel (''Pterodroma caribbaea'') is a small possibly extinct seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, '' Pterodroma''. It is related to the black-capped petrel (''P. hasitata''). Conservation This species was last collected in 1879, a ...

Birds of Jamaica Endemic birds of the Caribbean Birds described in 1866, Jamaican petrel Taxa named by Alexander Carte, Jamaican petrel {{Procellariiformes-stub