The Presence Of Absence: How Do We Know A Species Is Really Extinct?
When the only image available of your species is a painting, thatβs a really big clue that the species is extinct
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They were nomadic. Shy. They slipped quietly through the skies over seemingly endless tropical forests, their lives devoted to travelling from one patch of bamboo to another in search of the seeds upon which they depend.
These small, unassuming β almost ghost-like β birds are purple-winged ground-doves, Paraclaravis geoffroyi. Adult males are a handsome slate-blue with rich maroon bands on their wings, whilst brown replaces blue on adult females. They once were relatively common throughout the Atlantic Forests of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay (Figure 1), with flocks numbering as many as 100, according to historical reports. And yet, they are vanishingly rare now β or more likely, they are vanished. Completely gone from the planet. With only two reported (but undocumented) sightings in the 1980s, nothing at all has been seen nor heard from them since.
