Spectacled Cormorant

Spectacled Cormorant
Conservation status
Extinct  (c.1850) (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Pelecaniformes Family: Phalacrocoracidae Genus: Phalacrocorax Species: P. perspicillatus
Binomial name
Phalacrocorax perspicillatus Pallas, 1811
Synonyms
Graculus perspicillatus Elliot, 1869 Pallasicarbo perspicillatus Coues, 1869 Carbo perspicillatus Rothschild, 1907 Compsohalieus perspicillatus

The Spectacled Cormorant or Pallas's Cormorant (Phalacrocorax perspicillatus^[1]) is an extinct marine bird of the cormorant family of seabirds that inhabited Bering Island and possibly other places in the Komandorski Islands. A presumed prehistoric record from Amchitka Island, Alaska (Siegel-Causey et al., 1991), is based on misidentification of Double-crested Cormorant remains (Olson, 2005).

Old illustration of a Spectacled Cormorant

The species was first identified by Georg Steller in 1741 on Vitus Bering's disastrous second Kamchatka expedition. He described the bird as large, clumsy and almost flightless — though it was probably reluctant to fly rather than physically unable — and wrote "they weighed 12 – 14 pounds, so that one single bird was sufficient for three starving men." Though cormorants are normally notoriously bad-tasting, Steller says that this bird tasted delicious, particularly when it was cooked in the way of the native Kamtchadals, who encased the whole bird in clay and buried it and baked it in a heated pit.^[2]

Apart from the fact that it fed on fish, almost nothing else is known about this bird. The population declined quickly after further visitors to the area started collecting the birds for food and feathers, and their reports of profitable whaling grounds and large populations of Arctic Foxes and other animals with valuable pelts led to a massive influx of whalers and fur traders into the region; the last birds were reported to have lived around 1850 on Ariy Rock (Russian: Арий Камень^[3]) islet, off the northwestern tip of Bering Island.

See also

• Extinct birds
• List of extinct animals of Asia
• Steller's Sea Cow

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Phalacrocorax perspicillatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is listed as extinct

• Olson, Storrs L. (2005): Correction of erroneous records of cormorants from archeological sites in Alaska. Condor 107(4): 930-933. doi:10.1650/7818.1 (HTML abstract)

• Siegel-Causey, D.; Lefevre, C. & Savinetskii, A. B. (1991): Historical diversity of cormorants and shags from Amchitka Island, Alaska. Condor' 93(4): 840–852. PDF fulltext

Footnotes

1. ^ Phalacrocorax, Ancient Greek word for cormorants (literally "bald raven"). perspicillatus, Latin for "conspicuous", in allusion of the birds' large size.
2. ^ Ellis, Richard (2004). No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species. New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 135. ISBN 0-06-055804-0. 
3. ^ Ariy Kamen'. Often misspelt "Aji Kamen" or even "Aii Kimur".

External links

• 3D view of specimen RMNH 107.865 at Naturalis, Leiden (requires QuickTime browser plugin).