Editing Carolina parakeet (section)

==Extinction==
[[File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.110076 - Conuropsis carolinensis ludoviciana (Gmelin, 1788) - Carolina Parakeet - specimen - video.webm|thumbtime=0:14|thumb|Turnaround video of a ''C. c. ludovicianus'' specimen, Naturalis]]
The last captive Carolina parakeet, [[Incas (Carolina parakeet)|Incas]], died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918, in the same cage as [[Martha (passenger pigeon)|Martha]], the last [[passenger pigeon]], which died in 1914.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://johnjames.audubon.org/last-carolina-parakeet|title=The last Carolina Parakeet|date=22 December 2015}}</ref> There are no scientific studies or surveys of this bird by American naturalists; most information about it is from anecdotal accounts and museum specimens, so details of its prevalence and decline are unverified or speculative.

Extensive accounts of the precolonial and early colonial have been given for prevalence of this bird. The existence of flocks of gregarious, very colorful and raucous parrots could hardly have gone unnoted by European explorers, as parrots were virtually unknown in seafaring European nations in the 16th and 17th centuries. Later accounts in the latter half of the 19th century onward noted the birds' sparseness and absence.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wright |first=Albert |date=July 1912 |title=Early Records of the Carolina Paroquet |doi=10.2307/4071042 |journal=The Auk |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=343–363|jstor=4071042 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/86269 }}</ref>

Genetic evidence suggests that while populations had been in decline since the [[Last Glacial Maximum|last glacial maximum]], the lack of evidence of inbreeding suggests that the birds declined very quickly.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last1=Katz|first1=Brigit|title=The Extinction of This U.S. Parrot Was Quick and Driven by Humans|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/extinction-us-parrot-was-quick-and-driven-humans-180973786/|access-date=2021-10-18|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref>

The birds' range collapsed from east to west with settlement and clearing of the eastern and southern deciduous forests. John J. Audubon commented as early as 1832 on the decline of the birds. The bird was rarely reported outside Florida after 1860. The last reported sighting east of the Mississippi River (except Florida) was in 1878 in Kentucky. By the turn of the century, it was restricted to the swamps of central Florida. The last known wild specimen was killed in [[Okeechobee County, Florida]], in 1904, and the last captive bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo on February 21, 1918. This was the male specimen, Incas, that died within a year of his mate, Lady Jane.<ref>{{cite book |last=Snyder |first=Noel |date=June 2004 |title=The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird |publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> Additional reports of the bird were made in Okeechobee County, Florida, until the late 1920s, but these are not supported by specimens. However two sets of eggs purportedly taken from active nests in 1927 are in the collection of the Florida Museum of Natural History, and genetic testing could prove the species was still breeding at that time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Snyder |first=Noel |date=June 2004 |title=The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a Vanished Bird |publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last1=Webber|first1=Tom|title=Carolina Parakeet|url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/object/carolina-parakeet/|website=Florida Museum|language=en}}</ref> Not until 1939, however, did the [[American Ornithologists' Union|American Ornithologists' Society]] declare the Carolina parakeet to be extinct. The [[IUCN]] has listed the species as extinct since 1920.

In 1937, three parakeets resembling this species were sighted and filmed in the [[Okefenokee Swamp]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. However, the American Ornithologists' Union analyzed the film and concluded that they had probably filmed feral parakeets.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cokinos |first=Christopher |date=2009|title=Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds |publisher=Penguin |page=41}}</ref> A year later, in 1938, a flock of parakeets was apparently sighted by a group of experienced ornithologists in the swamps of the [[Santee River]] basin in [[South Carolina]], but this sighting was doubted by most other ornithologists. The birds were never seen again after this sighting, and shortly after a portion of the area was destroyed to make way for power lines, making the species' continued existence unlikely.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lost Wild America: The Story of Our Extinct and Vanishing Wildlife|last=McClung|first=Robert M.|publisher=Linnet Books|year=1994|isbn=978-0208023599|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780208023599}}</ref>

About 720 skins and 16 skeletons are housed in museums around the world,<ref>{{cite book |last=Luther |first=Dieter |date=1996 |title=Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt |language=de |trans-title=The extinct birds of the world |edition=4th |publisher=Westarp-Wissenschaften |location=Heidelberg |isbn=3-89432-213-6}}</ref> and analyzable DNA has been extracted from them.<ref name="Katz" />

===Reasons for extinction===
[[File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.110115 - Conuropsis carolinensis subspecies - Carolina Parakeet - specimen - video.webm|upright|thumbtime=0:12|thumb|Turnaround video of a mounted skeleton, Naturalis]]
The evidence is indicative that humans had at least a contributory role in the extinction of the Carolina parakeet, through a variety of means.<ref name="The last Carolina Parakeet">{{Cite web |url=http://johnjames.audubon.org/last-carolina-parakeet |title=The last Carolina Parakeet|date=22 December 2015}}</ref> Chief was [[deforestation]] in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hunting played a significant role, both for decorative use of their colorful feathers, for example, adornment of women's hats, and for reduction of crop predation.<ref name=IUCN/> This was partially offset by the recognition of their value in controlling invasive cockleburs. Minor roles were played by capture for the pet trade and, as noted in ''[[Pacific Standard]]'', by the introduction for crop pollination of [[European honeybee]]s that competed for nest sites.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://psmag.com/environment/remembering-the-carolina-parakeet|title=Happy Global Last Resort Day|last=Cokinos|first=Christopher|date=February 21, 2018|website=[[Pacific Standard]]|access-date=January 18, 2019}}</ref>

A factor that exacerbated their decline to extinction was the flocking behavior that led them to return to the vicinity of dead and dying birds (such as birds downed by hunting), enabling wholesale slaughter.<ref name="The last Carolina Parakeet"/>

The final extinction of the species in the early years of the 20th century is somewhat of a mystery, as it happened so rapidly. Vigorous flocks with many juveniles and reproducing pairs were noted as late as 1896, and the birds were long-lived in captivity, but they had virtually disappeared by 1904. Sufficient nest sites remained intact, so deforestation was not the final cause. American ornithologist Noel F. Snyder<ref name=Snyder/> speculates that the most likely cause seems to be that the birds succumbed to poultry disease, although no recent or historical records exist of New World parrot populations being afflicted by domestic poultry diseases. The modern poultry scourge [[Newcastle disease]] was not detected until 1926 in Indonesia, and only a subacute form of it was reported in the United States in 1938. Genetic research on samples did not show any significant presence of bird viruses (though this does not solely rule out disease).<ref name=":0" />