| Ara
atwoodi
|
HOME |
| |
| Kingdom |
Animalia |
Created by Peter Maas
for The Extinction Website. This
image has been released under
the Creative
Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.
|
| Phylum |
Chordata |
| Class |
Aves
(birds) |
| Order |
Psittaciformes
(parrots)
|
| Family |
Psittacidae
(true parrots)
|
| Subfamily |
Psittacinae |
| Authority |
Clark,
1908 |
| |
| English
Name |
Dominica
Macaw, Dominican Green-and-Yellow Macaw |
| Dutch
Name |
Dominica
Ara, Dominicaanse Ara |
| French
Name |
Ara
de Dominique |
| German
Name |
Grüner
Dominica-Ara |
| Spanish Name |
Guacamayo
Verde y Amarillo Dominicano |
| |
| Comments |
This
parrot is usually considered a hypothetical extinct parrot species. It is
only known from old reports. No skins, bones or any archaeological remains
are known. |
| |
| Taxonomy |
Clark
(1905) initially included macaws from Dominica in Ara guadeloupensis,
the Guadeloupe Macaw, but on discovery
of Thomas Atwood's text (1791), described them as distinct (Clark 1908). (BirdLife
International 2004) |
| |
| Characteristics |
Thomas
Atwood (1791) noted a macaw from Dominica that was larger than the two
local species of parrots (Amazona arausica and Amazona imperials).
The Dominica Macaw was said to have green and yellow plumage "with a
scarlet coloured fleshy substance from the ears to the root of the bill."
The "Chief feathers" of the wings and a tail were scarlet as
well. (Williams and Steadman 2001) |
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
 The
Dominica Macaw was endemic to Dominica (BirdLife International 2004).
Image: map with the previous
range of the Dominica Green-and-Yellow Macaw (in red). Created by Peter Maas for The Extinction Website. The
copyright holder of this work has released it into the public domain.
This applies worldwide.
|
| |
| History
& Population |
The
Dominica Macaw is only known from the writings of Thomas Atwood in 1791.
He wrote "The Mackaw is of the parrot kind, but larger than the
common parrot and makes a more disagreeable noise. They are in great
plenty, as are also parrots on the island: have both of them a delightful
green and yellow plumage, with a scarlet coloured fleshy substance from
the ears to the root of the bill, of which colour is likewise the chief
feathers of the wings and tail." They became probably extinct in the late 18th
or early 19th century. (Day 1981; BirdLife International 2004) |
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
Thomas
Atwood notes that birds were captured both for food and pets, and
presumably this persecution led to their extinction (BirdLife
International 2004).
|
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
There
exist no specimens in any known collection. |
| |
| Relatives |
The
relatives of this species are all other macaw species, including the other
extinct West Indian macaw species, like the Cuban
Red Macaw (Ara tricolor), Red-headed
Green Macaw (Ara erythrocephala), Red-tailed
Blue-and-Yellow Macaw (Ara erythrura), Jamaican
Red Macaw (Ara gossei), Guadeloupe
Macaw (Ara guadeloupensis), and the Martinique
Macaw (Ara martinica). |
| |
| Links |
IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species: Ara atwoodi
|
| |
|
References
(Complete
website)
|
Atwood,
Thomas. 1971. The History of the Island of Dominica. London: Frank Cass
and Co.
BirdLife International 2004. Ara
atwoodi. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 27 January 2007.
Clark, A. H. (1905) The Lesser
Antillean macaws. Auk 22: 266-273.
Clark, A. H. (1908) The macaw of
Dominica. Auk 25: 309-311.
Day,
D., 1981, The Doomsday Book of Animals, Ebury Press, London.
Williams, M. I. & D. V.
Steadman (2001): The historic and prehistoric distribution of parrots (Psittacidae)
in the West Indies. Pp 175-489 in Biogeography of the West Indies:
patterns and perspectives. 2nd ed. (Woods, C. A. & F. E. Sergile,
eds.) Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
|
|
Last
updated: 4th February 2007.
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page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
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