The Ryukyu wood pigeon (''Columba jouyi''), otherwise known as the silver-banded or silver-crescented pigeon is an

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 ...

species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...

genus in the family

Columbidae Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

. This wood pigeon was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Laurel forest Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and elo ...

habitat.

Generality

It is an

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

that was

to islands in the Okinawa archipelago south-west of the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese mainland. In the Okinawa group, it has been recorded from Iheyajima, Izenajima, Okinawa proper and the nearby islet Yagachijima. In the

Kerama Retto The are a subtropical island group southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Geography Four islands are inhabited: Tokashiki Island, Zamami Island, Aka Island, and Geruma Island. The islands are administered as Tokashiki Village and Zamami Vill ...

to the west of Okinawa, it was found on

Zamamijima is an island in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Kerama Islands group and administered as the village of Zamami in Shimajiri District is a district located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Modern translation of Shimajiri means "Butt of t ...

, whereas in the Daitō group, some 300 km to the SE of Okinawa, it occurred on both major islets, Kita Daitōjima and

Minami Daitōjima Minami (kanji 南, hiragana みなみ) is a Japanese word meaning "south". Places Japan There are several Minami wards in Japan, most of them appropriately in the south part of a city: *Minami, Tokushima, a village in Tokushima Prefecture ...

. In earlier times, it was most likely also found on other islands near Okinawa, such as

Iejima , previously romanized in English as Ie Shima, is an island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is ...

. The species' scientific name honors Stejneger's friend, the specimen collector

Pierre Louis Jouy Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

Extinction

Like all species of Japanese wood pigeons, the Ryukyu wood pigeon was very susceptible to

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. It required substantial areas of undisturbed subtropical forest to thrive.

, for example, was largely deforested for settlement and agriculture even before scientific exploration began, which explains the absence of records from this island. The species was last recorded on Okinawa in 1904, probably succumbing to hunting. In the Daitō group, it disappeared after 1936 due to these small islands being completely deforested by settlement and construction activity prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was presumed to continue to exist on the outlying islands in the Okinawa group, but has never been found again. Theoretically, there is sufficient habitat remaining in the mountains of Okinawa. Still, the military activity during World War II and hunting by the Japanese garrison would probably have yielded sightings, if birds still had existed there. More puzzling is the absence of ''any'' records from

Tokashikijima is the largest of the Kerama Islands, a group of Japanese islands southwest of Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean. The island is administered as the village of Tokashiki in Shimajiri District, Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa ...

in the Kerama Retto, which, despite being small, has still mostly intact forest cover even today; Zamamijima, where the species is known to have occurred is smaller still and situated farther away from the Okinawan mainland.

References

* Stejneger, Leonhard Hess (1887): Description of a New Species of Fruit-Pigeon (''Janthoenas jouyi'') from the Liu Kiu Islands, Japan. '' Am. Nat.'' 21(6): 583–584.

External links

Ryukyu Wood Pigeon pictures.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q714093 Columba (genus) Extinct birds of Oceania Bird extinctions since 1500 Extinct animals of Japan Endemic fauna of the Ryukyu Islands Birds of the Ryukyu Islands Birds described in 1887