page_title: Eskimo curlew
section_title: Near extinction
hierarchical_section_title: Eskimo curlew / Near extinction
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photograph of an Eskimo Curlew or Northern Curlew (Numenius borealis), a bird which now appears to be extinct.
context_page_description: The Eskimo curlew, or the northern curlew, is a species of curlew in the family Scolopacidae. It was one of the most numerous shorebirds in the tundra of western Arctic Canada and Alaska, with approximately two million birds killed per year in the late 1800s. As there has not been a reliable sighting since 1987 or a confirmed sighting since 1963, the Eskimo curlew is now considered possibly extinct. The bird was about 30 cm long and fed mostly on insects and berries.
context_section_description: At one time, the Eskimo curlew may have been one of the most numerous shorebirds in North America, with a population in the millions. As many as 2 million birds per year were killed near the end of the nineteenth century. The last confirmed sightings were in 1962 on Galveston Island, Texas (photographed) and on Barbados in 1963 (specimen). There was a reliable report of 23 birds in Texas in 1981, and more recent additional unconfirmed reports from Texas, Canada (1987), Argentina (1990), and Nova Scotia (2006). No confirmed record of this species has been reported in South America since 1939. It has been suggested that the species not be treated as extinct until all possible remaining habitats have been surveyed and incidental sightings have ceased, and an assessment of critically endangered (possibly extinct) be adopted in the meantime. Full details on all sightings up to 1986 are included in the online edition of Eskimo Curlew: A Vanishing Species?
  This species is fully protected in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Hunting has been outlawed since around 1916.
caption: Specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zoology
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