Travelers to the North American continent in the first half of the 19th century may have been attracted from time to time by flocks of birds that appeared in the sky.
The members of these flocks look like pigeons, but have long tail feathers, and the males have a beautiful pale brownish red breast and abdomen, and they are the famous passenger pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius). If you encounter similar flocks of birds flying south of the Great Lakes, in a gray, black and brownish red "wave" of feathers, sometimes some yellow and green figures flash, this is our protagonist today, the Carolina long-tailed parrot (Conuropsis carolinensis). If you are at a higher latitude, people will still have the privilege of seeing parrots that usually appear in the tropics, but fly between ice and snow.
The Carolina parrot | painted by the famous naturalist John James Audubon Wikimedia Commons
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > the only Native North American parrot</h1>
The Carolina parakeet has been found in the Eastern United States from South Florida in the east to the north to the waterfront of North Carolina in the north, and to eastern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska in the west. In fact, ornithologists have divided the species into two subspecies, bounded by the Appalachian Mountains and the nominate subspecies (C. A. Thompson) to the east. c. carolinensis), the mississippi river basin to the west is inhabited by the subspecies of ludovicianus. Native Americans have known this temperate parrot for a long time, and the Seminoles who once lived in Florida called them "puzzi la nee," which means "yellow head." With the migration of European immigrants, people in the Old World began to become aware of the existence of this parrot.
In 1758, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus named the Carolina parrot based on an illustrated description in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, published in 1731. Interestingly, although the scientific and common names often bear the place name Carolina, and the specimen referenced to the illustration on which Linnaeus was named is believed to originate from South Carolina, no specimen from North and South Carolina has been found in the preserved specimens today. Therefore, the name of this species of parrot is misleading, and the Carolinas are not where they are concentrated.
Illustration of the Carolina parakeet in the book Carolina | Wikimedia Commons
Less than 20 years after Linnaeus named the Carolinas parrot, the American Revolutionary War broke out on the eastern side of the North American continent. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the establishment of the United States of America. However, while witnessing the birth of this new country, people also witnessed the gradual decline of the Carolina parakeet population. In the 19th century, over a period of about a hundred years, their numbers continued to decrease at a rate visible to the naked eye until they perished.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > die together</h1>
The famous American naturalist John James Audubon once wrote in 1831: "Our parrots are rapidly decreasing, and 25 years ago they were still abundant in some places, and now they are almost never seen again... Nowadays, only a few individuals can be found north of Cincinnati, and you will not see more parrots until you reach the mouth of the Ohio River. I think along the Mississippi River valley, they're less than half as many as they were 15 years ago. By the mid-19th century, they maintained relatively healthy populations only within Florida.
Specimen of the Carolina parakeet, in the | of Laval University Cephas / Wikimedia Commons
What really happened during this time? You know, when European immigrants first saw these parrots, they tended to hunt them as a "pest bird" because they flocked to eat crops and destroy orchard harvests. Carolina parakeets have a habit that may have made hunting more devastating. When a group of parrots has been shot down, the other members of the group do not flee in all directions, but instead make a tense screeching sound while circling in the air, and eventually land around the casualty companions. This way, hunters can easily kill entire herds of long-tailed parrots.
While being wiped out as an agricultural "pest bird", the Carolina parakeet was caught and supplied to the pet market and even exported to Europe. Hunters will shoot them for pure amusement, and they will also hunt them to get feathers to decorate fashionable women's hats. As the Carolina parrot becomes increasingly rare, and a plot similar to that of the great auk when it was on the brink of extinction, specimen collectors, egg collectors, individuals and institutions intending to breed will not hesitate to obtain a parrot (dead or alive) out of the mentality of scarce things.
When the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) is about to be hunted to extinction, the desire to hunt it continues to increase, and collectors want to obtain a precious specimen to show off their wealth | Mike Pennington / Wikimedia Commons
On April 18, 1901, a specimen of the Carolina long-tailed parrot was seized on the east coast of Florida, the last specimen of the species that was well documented to have been obtained from the wild. Three years later, renowned ornithologist Frank Chapman saw a group of 13 on Lake Okeechobee in Florida, which is believed to be the last definitive sighting of the species in the wild. In the 1920s and 1930s, there were also unconfirmed sightings in Central Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. After that, no one has seen them in the wild.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > went to the abyss with the passenger pigeons</h1>
There have been various speculations about the reasons for the extinction of the Carolina parrot, and in addition to the large-scale hunting of humans, the loss of habitat caused by deforestation, the competition of bees from Europe with the parrot for tree hole nest sites, and some unknown disease have all been suspected of being the causes of extinction.
In 2020, a study based on the genome of contemporary biology was published, and in the data obtained, no inbreeding was found in the species, indicating that they were rapidly dying out in a relatively short period of time. There is also no evidence of the existence of viruses in this genome, so the results do not support the hypothesis that the disease leads to extinction. There are all indications that the extinction of the Carolina parakeet is most likely entirely to blame for us humans.
Drawing of the Carolina parrot | Cephas / Wikimedia Commons
The study also sheds light on another mystery related to the Carolina parakeet. According to historical records, this species prefers to eat the ear of the ear, and the seed contains suō (suō) glycoside (gān), a deadly toxin that inhibits the production of mitochondrial energy. Early naturalists described the carolina parakeets alone as having stomachs containing the seeds of the ear, enough to poison domestic cats. Why aren't long-tailed parrots poisoned? It has now been found that there are three genetic variants in the genome of the species, possibly related to adaptation to foods containing carboxycelin.
Perhaps because they all ate large quantities of seeds and needed minerals to neutralize certain chemical components in the food, early accounts include descriptions of Carolina parrots and passenger pigeons gathering in large flocks to drink salty water or peck at salty soil. And the fate of these two difficult brothers is so similar.
Pacific Grove Nature Museum, passenger pigeons are placed together with parakeets | Missvain / Wikimedia Commons
At noon on September 1, 1914, the world's last passenger pigeon, martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States. Less than four years later, in the same zoo, a similar tragedy was repeated: a male Carolina parrot named Inca died. It and its partner, Lady Jane, have lived in the zoo for about 32 years and, like other captive parrots, have not been able to leaf in captivity. The only native parrot species on the North American continent, following in the footsteps of the passenger pigeon, has irretrievably fallen into the abyss.
This article is from the species calendar, welcome to forward
If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]