Canary Islands Oystercatcher

Canary Islands Oystercatcher (Haematopus meadewaldoi )

The Canary Islands Oystercatcher (Haematopus meadewaldoi ), also known as Canarian Oystercatcher, is a wader extinct, which occurred on the eastern Canary Islands. The specific epithet honors the British ornithologist Edmund Meade - Waldo.

Features

The Canary Islands Oystercatcher reached a size of 40 to 45 cm. He saw the Black Oystercatcher ( Haematopus moquini ) are very similar, but had smaller wings, a slimmer barrel and a longer beak. The plumage was generally shiny black with a white spot at the base of the inner webs of blankets. The iris was red, the eye ring was orange, the beak vermilion with a lighter tip. The legs and feet were dark pink, the claws were ivory.

System

David Armitage Bannerman described the Canary Islands Oystercatcher Haematopus less than 1913 meade - waldoi. Since Haematopus niger was already preoccupied for Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1787 Scolopax nigra, beat Ernst Hartert 1921, Haematopus unicolor before the name meadewaldoi. In 1934, he was reclassified by James Lee Peters Haematopus ostralegus as meadewaldoi. In 1962, he was classified as a subspecies of Bannerman of the Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus moquini ). In 1982, the ornithologist Phil Hockey is that the Canary Islands Oystercatcher from the Black Oystercatcher differs and raised in the Canary Islands Oystercatcher in the species status.

Way of life

Its eggs were smaller than those of the Black Oystercatcher.

Extinction

Between 1828 and 1830 in the Canary Islands Oystercatcher was first observed by Philip Barker Webb and Sabin Berthelot on the coasts of La Graciosa, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Edmund Meade - Waldo, who introduced this species in ornithological circles, began in 1893 in collaboration with Henry Baker Tristram three copies. In the same period, two other specimens were collected from a local collector named Ramón Gómez. The otherwise last known specimen was shot in June 1913 by David Armitage Bannerman. Local reports of fishermen and lighthouse keepers According died in the Canary Islands Oystercatcher probably from around 1940. Once there were 1968-1981 four unconfirmed sightings (two of Tenerife and two from Senegal), the mid-1980s an extensive search was conducted for this type. However, this failed, and since 1994 in the Canary Islands Oystercatcher by the IUCN is officially listed as extinct.

The over-harvesting of invertebrates in the beach zone and the disturbance by humans were probably the main reason for his disappearance. In addition, probably the predation by rats and cats have played an important role.