Talk:Labrador Duck

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[edit] Relationships

In an edit, Dysmorodrepanis indicates that the Steller's Eider might might actually be closest living relative of the Labrador Duck. I have not seen this in the literature, but I am by no means an ornithologist. The one reference I have seen on relationships indicated the Labrador Duck might be related to the Scoters and to the Harlequin Duck. I'd love to see references on this. --Cotinis 17:00, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

I really don't know where I got that from. Anyways, I expanded and relocated the relationship stuff (with ref)
Oh BTW, does anyone know of molecular analyses? Dysmorodrepanis 23:38, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Extinction cause

Although it was hunted for food, this bird probably died out because of decline due to pollution of mussels and other shellfish that it is believed to have fed on.

  • Source? The Birds of North America series has no mention of thise, and it's nothing if not comprehensive. Sabine's Sunbird 04:26, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • Odd, the quoted web site only mentions that the bird ate molluscs--this is well-known. The site does not mention a mussel die-off as a cause of extinction, here is the quote:

Very little is known of the life history of this bird, and the causes that led to its extinction are not understood. Possibly it was a colonial nesting species and therefore particularly vulnerable. Perhaps never abundant, the colonies may have been raided systematically year after year by natives and fishermen who took the eggs for food, thus seriously interfering with normal reproduction. It is generally believed that its extinction was not the result of overshooting.

Other printed sources I have seen tend to agree that exploitation on the breeding grounds was likely the cause of extinction. Others do mention over-hunting, for the birds wintered around Long Island, New York, where there was lots of market-hunting. Aha! The mussel die-off is mentioned in Christopher Cokinos's Hope is the Thing with Feathers.
I'm going to go ahead and alter that language in the article to reflect the uncertainty, and add some references. Incidentally, I have some public-domain artwork of this species, and will add it in soon.

--Cotinis 02:03, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Any theories that the extinction was not mostly human caused? It is a part of evolution after all and the birds were never common to begin with (possibly indicating that they were not very fit and that another bird occupying its niche simply out-competed it.) Just seems odd that they'd jump immediatly to human.
Well, that is a good question, and hard to answer definitively, however there is a lot of circumstantial evidence the extinction was caused by humans. 1-The extinction occurred in the late 19th century, at the same time as the decline and extinction (or near-extinction) of several other North American birds (Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Eskimo Curlew). These extinctions came at a time of improved gunnery and huge population growth in North America. All of these species had branched off from their nearest relatives on the order of 2-3 million years ago (according to DNA molecular clocks and other techniques). It is a little hard to believe the sudden extinction of several North American birds during a time of huge human population growth over 100 years could have been a coincidence--the species having survived for millions of years previously. 2-Labrador Ducks were hunted fairly heavily on their wintering grounds, perhaps just incidentally to market hunting of more tasty species. Their decline occurred during a period of intense market hunting for the nearby urban markets of the northeastern United States, then undergoing a population boom. 3-In terms of displacement by another species with a similar niche, the Labrador Duck had a unique feeding niche, not currently occupied by other birds. The Steller's Eider of the North Pacific perhaps has a similar lifestyle, but they have never occurred together. Competition on the (still unknown) breeding grounds is a possibility, but an even better one is that the Labrador Duck was wiped out by human predation or an introduced predator on its breeding grounds. --Cotinis 03:17, 9 October 2006 (UTC)