Camptorhynchus labradorius J. F. Gmelin, 1789:537

Labrador duck, Pied duck, Skunk duck, Sand shoal duck, Sandshoal duck

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Anas labradoria Gmelin, 1789:537 (original combination); Somateria labradoria Gmelin, 1789:537; Camptolaemus labradorius Gmelin, 1789:537; Fuligula labradora Gmelin, 1789:537; Fulica grisea Leib, 1839:170; Fuligula grisea Leib, 1839:170?

Conservation Status

Extinct

Last record: Autumn 1875; 12 December 1878 (Gregg, 1879)

IUCN RedList status: Extinct

The Labrador duck apparently bred on Labrador, Canada, and wintered from Nova Scotia, Canada to Chesapeake Bay, USA. The last confirmed record of the species was in 1875. However, a specimen may have been shot and eaten on 12 December 1878 (Gregg, 1879).

Distribution

North America

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

The Naturalis Museum website states that 54 specimens of the Labrador duck have been preserved in museum collections around the world, including 10 in the AMNH, New York. However, (Chilton, 2009) reports that there are in fact 55 museum specimens, and no doubt others also existed in the past but have been lost or destroyed. And in addition, Glen Chilton (pers. comm., 18 April, 2012) confirms that there are in fact only 8 specimens in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and not 10 as the Naturalis Museum claims.

The Naturalis Museum, Leiden, has two specimens:

RMNH 110.083 (male)

RMNH 110.084 (female)

USNM 1972

Photographs of every known stuffed specimen can be found on the website of Glen Chilton, the "world's leading authority on the extinct Labrador Duck".

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Gmelin, J. F. (1789). [description of Camptorhynchus labradorius]. Syst. Nat. 1(2): 537.

Other references:

Audubon, John James. (1838). Ornithological biography, volume 4. London: Robert Havell, Jr.

BirdLife International. (2012). Camptorhynchus labradorius. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 07 February 2013.

BirdLife International. 2016. Camptorhynchus labradorius. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22680418A92862623. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680418A92862623.en. Downloaded on 27 June 2021.

Brooks, T. 2000. Extinct species. In: BirdLife International (ed.), Threatened Birds of the World, pp. 701-708. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, U.K.

Buckner, Janet C. et al. (In Press, 2017). Mitogenomics supports an unexpected taxonomic relationship for the extinct diving duck Chendytes lawi and definitively places the extinct Labrador Duck. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2017.12.008

Carlton, JT, Geller, JB, Reaka-Kudla, ML and Norse, EA (1999) Historical extinctions in the sea. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 30, 515–538.

Chilton, Glen. (1997). Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius). In: The Birds of North America, no. 307, pp. 1-12 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

Chilton, Glen. (2009). The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Chilton, Glen and Sorenson, Michael D. (2007). Genetic identification of eggs purportedly from the extinct Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius). The Auk 124(3): 962-968. [Abstract]

Day, David. (1981). The Doomsday Book of Animals: A Natural History of Vanished Species. New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press.

del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

del Monte-Luna, Pablo et al. (2023). A review of recent and future marine extinctions. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction 1: e13. https://doi.org/10.1017/ext.2023.11

del Monte-Luna, P, Lluch-Belda, D, Serviere-Zaragoza, E, Carmona, R, Reyes-Bonilla, H, Aurioles-Gamboa, D, Castro-Aguirre, JL, del Próo SA, G, Trujillo-Millán, O and Brook, BW (2007) Marine extinctions revisited. Fish and Fisheries 8(2), 107–122.

Dulvy, Nicholas K., Pinnegar, John K. and Reynolds, John D. (2009). Holocene extinctions in the sea, pp. 129-150. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.

Dulvy, NK, Sadovy, Y and Reynolds, JD (2003) Extinction vulnerability in marine populations. Fish and Fisheries 4(1), 25–64.

Dutcher, William. (1891). The Labrador duck:— a revised list of extant specimens in North America, with some historical. Auk 8(2): 201-216.

Ducher, William. (1894). The Labrador Duck — another specimen, with additional data respecting extant specimens. Auk 11(1): 4-12.

Ehrlich, Paul R., Dobkin, David S. and Wheye, Darryl. (1992). Birds in Jeopardy: The Imperiled and Extinct Birds of the United States and Canada, Including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. 259 pp.

Elphick, Chris S., Roberts, David L. and Reed, J. Michael. (2010). Estimated dates of recent extinctions for North American and Hawaiian birds. Biological Conservation 143: 617-624.

Feldegg, C. F. von. (1842). Catalog der Exotischen Voegel in der Sammlung des Obersten Baron Feldegg zusammengestellt am 31 October 1842. Unpublished manuscript, deposited in the Department of Zoology, National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic.

Fuller, Errol. (1988). Extinct Birds. New York: Facts on File Publications. 256 pp.

Gibbs, K. E., Mackey, R. L. and Currie, D. J. (2009). Human land use, agriculture, pesticides and losses of imperiled species. Diversity and Distributions 15(2): 242-253.

Giraud, J. P. (1844). The Birds of Long Island. New York: Wiley and Putman.

Gouraud, Christophe. (2014). Extinct and endangered species and subspecies of birds in the Baillon Collection, La Châtre, France. Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 183(3): 29-38.

Gourdin, H. (2009). L'eider du Labrador. Oiseau 2009: 65-67.

Greenway J.C., Jr., 1967: Extinct and vanishing birds of the world. 2nd rev. ed. New York: Dover Publications, xvi + 520 pp.

Gregg, W. H. (1879). Camptolaemus labradorius. Amer. Nat. 13: 128-129.

Hahn, P. (1963). Where is that vanished bird: An index to the known specimens of extinct and near-extinct North American species. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum and University of Toronto Press.

Hudon, Daniel. (2013). The Extinction Stories: The Labrador Duck. Canary 23(Winter): [pagination?].

Hume Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.

Hume, JP. (2017) Extinct Birds 2nd Edition

Humphrey, P. S. and Butsch, R. S. (1958). The anatomy of the Labrador Duck, Camptorhynchus labradorius (Gmelin). Smithson. Misc. Collect. 135(7): 1-23.

Jansen, Justin J. F. (2015). The bird collection of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France: the first years (1793-1825). Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 184(5): 81-111.

Jouanin, Christian. (1962). Inventaire des oiseaux éteints ou en voie d’extinction conservés au Muséum de Paris. Terre et Vie 109: 275-301.

Knox, Alan G. and Walters, Michael P. (1994). Extinct and endangered birds in the collections of The Natural History Museum. British Ornithologists' Club Occasional Publications 1: 1-292.

Leib, G. C. (1839). Description of a new species of Fuligula. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, ser. 1, 8(1): 170-171.

Madge, S.; Burn, H. 1988. Wildfowl. Christopher Helm, London.

Mlíkovský, Jiří. (2012). Extinct and nearly extinct birds in the collections of the National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic. Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series 181(9): 95-123. [automatic download]

Nejfel’dt I.A., 1978: Vymeršie pticy v kollekcii Zoologičeskogo instituta Akademii nauk SSSR [Extinct birds in the collection of the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR]. – In: Loskot V.M. (ed.): Sistematika i biologiâ redkih i maloizučenyh ptic [Systematics and biology of rare and less known birds]. – Akademiâ Nauk SSSR, Trudy Zoologičeskogo Instituta 76: 101-110. [In Russian.]

Roberts, D. L. and Jarić, I. (2016). Inferring extinction in North American and Hawaiian birds in the presence of sighting uncertainty. PeerJ 4: e2426.

Rothschild, Lionel Walter. (1907). Extinct birds: an attempt to write in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times, that is within the last six or seven hundred years: to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction. London: Hutchinson & Co. XXIX + 243 pp. [p. 105-107, pl. 36]

Rowley, G. D. (1877). Somateria labradoria (J. F. Gmelin). Ornithological Miscellany 2: 205-223.

Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]

Štěpánek O., 1975: Stopadesát let zoologie Národního muzea v Praze (1818–1968) [150 years of zoology in the National Museum in Praha (1818–1968)]. – Časopis Národního Muzea, Oddíl Přírodovědný 138-139: 1-159. [In Czech.]

Stresemann E., 1954: Ausgestorbene und aussterbende Vogelarten vertreten im Zoologischen Museum zu Berlin. – Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin 30: 38-53.

Stresemann, E. (1957). Jubiläumstagung der Tschechoslowakischen Ornithologischen Gesellschaft 98: 132.

Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.

Vargas, Pablo. (2023). Exploring ‘endangered living fossils’ (ELFs) among monotypic genera of plants and animals of the world. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11: 1100503. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1100503

Vermeij, G. J. (1993). Biogeography of recently extinct marine species: Implications for conservation. Conservation Biology 7(2): 391-397.

Wolff, WJ (2000) The south-eastern North Sea: Losses of vertebrate fauna during the past 2000 years. Biological Conservation 95, 209–217.

Young, H. Glyn, Tonge, Simon J. and Hume, Julian Pender. (1996). Review of Holocene wildfowl extinctions. Wildfowl 47: 167-181.

Zusi, Richard I. and Bentz, Gregory Dean. (1978). The appendicular myology of the Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius). The Condor 80(4): 407-418.

http://www.chemunghistory.com/labradorduck.html

http://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/2016/09/09/searching-last-labrador-duck/90118798/

http://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/7773/camptorhynchus-labradorius-labrador-duck

Acknowledgements

My sincere appreciation goes to Glen Chilton for pointing out two factual errors in my original account of this species. I had inadvertently written that he reports that 54 museum specimens exist in his 2009 book, The Curse of the Labrador Duck. Whereas he actually reports 55.