Jamaican petrel

The Jamaican petrel (Pterodroma caribbaea) is (or was) a small seabird in the gadfly petrel genus, Pterodroma. It is related to the black-capped petrel P. hasitata, and often considered a subspecies.

Illustration from 1907

Jamaican petrel
Illustration by Joseph Smit, 1866

Critically endangered, possibly extinct  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Procellariiformes
Family: Procellariidae
Genus: Pterodroma
Species:
P. caribbaea
Binomial name
Pterodroma caribbaea
Carte, 1866[2]

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 conceivably occur on Dominica and Guadeloupe.

Several species of lice are known to have parasitized the Jamaica and black-capped petrels . If the former is extinct, one of these lice, the phtilopterid Saemundssonia jamaicensis may be coextinct as it has not been found on other birds (May 1990).

It most likely became extinct due to predation by introduced mongooses and rats.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Pterodroma caribbaea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22698097A93661165. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22698097A93661165.en.
  2. Carte, Alexander (1866). "On an undescribed species of petrel from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 93–95.
  • Mey, Eberhard (1990): Eine neue ausgestorbene Vogel-Ischnozere von Neuseeland, Huiacola extinctus (Insecta, Phthiraptera). Zoologischer Anzeiger 224(1/2): 49–73. [German with English abstract] PDF fulltext


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