Jamaican wood rail

Jamaican wood rail
Conservation status
Extinct  (1881)  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Gruiformes
Family:	Rallidae
Genus:	Amaurolimnas
Species:	A. concolor
Subspecies:	†A. c. concolor
Trinomial name
†Amaurolimnas concolor concolor (P. H. Gosse, 1847)

The Jamaican wood rail (Amaurolimnas concolor concolor), also called the Jamaican uniform rail, is an extinct subspecies of the uniform crake found on Jamaica. Extinct since 1881, it is the nominate subspecies of the bird. ^[2]

Appearance

The Jamaican wood rail was a reddish-brown bird some 10 inches in length. ^[2]

Ecology

Although capable of flight, the wood rail was primarily a terrestrial bird, preferring to run to escape predators. It was originally widespread on the island, inhabiting swamps, jungle undergrowth and streambeds, to fairly high altitudes. ^[3]

Extinction

Already rare and threatened by rats and cats, the Jamaican wood rail was ultimately driven to extinction shortly after the introduction of small Indian mongooses to Jamaica in 1872. ^{[4] [2]} The last specimens of the bird were collected in 1881. ^[5]

References

1. BirdLife International (2021). "Amaurolimnas concolor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2021: e.T22692601A163610586. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22692601A163610586.en . Retrieved 17 November 2022.
2. Day, David (1989). The Encyclopedia of Vanished Species. Hong Kong: Mclaren Publishing Limited. ISBN   0-947889-30-2.
3. Clive Roots (2006). Flightless Birds . Greenwood Publishing Group. p.  131. ISBN   0-313-33545-1.
4. Espeut, W. B. (1882). "On the acclimatization of the Indian mongoose in Jamaica". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (November): 712–714.
5. David Watts; Alan R. H. Baker; Richard Dennis (1990). The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change Since 1492. Cambridge University Press. p. 515. ISBN   0-521-38651-9.

External links

• The Jamaican uniform rail at AviBase