Cozumel Thrasher
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| iCozumel Thrasher | ||||||||||||||
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| Toxostoma guttatum (Ridgway, 1885) |
The Cozumel Thrasher, Toxostoma guttatum, is a bird from the Mimidae family, which is found only on the island of Cozumel off the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico.
This bird has brown upperparts and white underparts with black streaks. It has a grey face, a long black bill with a downward curve and two white wing bars.
The numbers of this bird declined rapidly when Hurricane Gilbert hit this island on September 14, 1988. Until it was sighted in June 2004, this bird had last been seen in 1995, the same year that Hurricane Roxanne hit Cozumel on October 11, and it was widely believed to have become extinct. It is believed to be the most critically endangered species of bird in Mexico. It is unclear what damage Hurricane Wilma's strike on the island caused.
Some scientists believe that other factors must have contributed to the bird's decline, because the Cozumel Thrasher likely survived hurricanes for millennia. Introduced species, especially predatory boa constrictors introduced to the island in 1971 and now abundant, may also have had a disastrous effect.
[edit] References
- ^ BirdLife International (2004). Toxostoma guttatum. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
[edit] External links
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