Ryukyu wood pigeon

Ryukyu wood pigeon
Conservation status
Extinct (late 1930s)  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Columbiformes
Family:	Columbidae
Genus:	Columba
Species:	†C. jouyi
Binomial name
†Columba jouyi ( Stejneger , 1887)
Synonyms
Janthoenas jouyi Stejneger , 1887 Carpophaga janthina Seebohm, 1887 (partim)

The Ryukyu wood pigeon (Columba jouyi), otherwise known as the silver-banded or silver-crescented pigeon is an

habitat.

Generality

It is an

.

Extinction

Like all species of Japanese wood pigeons, the Ryukyu wood pigeon was very susceptible to habitat destruction. It required substantial areas of undisturbed subtropical forest to thrive. Iejima, for example, was largely deforested for settlement and agriculture even before scientific exploration began, which explains the absence of records from this island. The species was last recorded on Okinawa in 1904, probably succumbing to hunting. In the Daitō group, it disappeared after 1936 due to these small islands being completely deforested by settlement and construction activity prior to World War II. It was presumed to continue to exist on the outlying islands in the Okinawa group, but has never been found again.

Theoretically, there is sufficient habitat remaining in the mountains of Okinawa. Still, the military activity during World War II and hunting by the Japanese garrison would probably have yielded sightings, if birds still had existed there. More puzzling is the absence of any records from

in the Kerama Retto, which, despite being small, has still mostly intact forest cover even today; Zamamijima, where the species is known to have occurred is smaller still and situated farther away from the Okinawan mainland.

References

• Stejneger, Leonhard Hess (1887): Description of a New Species of Fruit-Pigeon (Janthoenas jouyi) from the Liu Kiu Islands, Japan.
  Am. Nat.
  21(6): 583–584.

External links

• Ryukyu Wood Pigeon pictures.