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The Decline and Fall of the Eskimo Curlew, Or Why Did the Curlew Go

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The Decline and Fall of the Eskimo Curlew, Or Why Did the Curlew Go The decline and fall of the Eskimo Curlew, or did the curlew go extaille? by Richard C. Banks 66Thereis no need to look for a probable bush (1912) and Swenk (1916) seems over- incause for the extermination of the whelming,and there can be little reasonable Eskimo Curlew -- the causeis painfully doubtthat overkill was an importantfactor in apparent.... The destructionof this bird was the demiseof the curlewand in the reductionof mainlydue to unrestrictedshooting, market populationsofother species. Yet, the dogmatic huntingand shipment, particularly during the statementsquoted above suggest that any other spring migration in the United States" (For- factors that may have been involved were bush 1912:427). ignored,and indeed these authors barely men- tionedand quickly discarded other postulated &&One neednot look far to find the cause causes.This paper.will analyzethe circum- •Jwhich led to its destruction.... No, stancesof thedecline of the curlew, attempt to therewas only one cause, slaughter by human placeknown mortality factors into perspective, beings, slaughter in Labrador and New and speculatethat other factors unknown to Englandin summerand fall, slaughterin Forbushand Swenkwere significant in that SouthAmerica in winterand slaughter,worst decline. of all, from Texasto Canadain the spring" (Bent 1929:127). LIFE HISTORY hewriting of the authorscited above, and What little waslearned about the biologyof similar conclusionsby Swenk(1916), have the EskimoCurlew before its populationwas led to generalacceptance of the conceptthat reducedvirtually to nil has been summarized excessiveshooting, particularly by market by Forbush (1912), Swenk(1916), Bent (1929), hunters, was the cause of the extationa of the and Greenway(1958). The speciesbred in the Eskimo Curlew, Numenius borealis, near the Arctic, mainly in the Mackenzie District of the end of the 19th century(Greenway 1958, Vin- Northwest Territories of Canada, but also cent 1966, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and westwardand eastwardfor unknown distances, Wildlife1973). Bent (1929) had no important perhapsto the Alaskancoast and HudsonBay; •nformationthat had not beensummarized by the limits of the breedingrange were never Forbush (1912) and Swenk (1916), and in accuratelydetermined. In late July, curlews essencemerely echoed the beliefsexpressed in begantheir migration,initially flying eastward their works. or southeastward to the coast of Labrador wherethey lingered for sometime feedingon Asconservationists writing before the advent berriesand accumulatinggreat fat reserves.In of effectivelegislation designed to protect Augustand Septembergreat flocks flew south- migratorybirds, both Forbush and particularly ward over the Atlantic Ocean, across the Swenk seem to have been more interested in us- Antilles and South America to Patagonian ing the EskimoCurlew as a horribleexample Argentina, where they wintered. The flight of the excesses of market hunters and as a from Labradorto SouthAmerica was appar- primejustification for the needof protective ently without a landfall under favorable legislationthan in addressingthe biology of the weather conditions, but storms in the North species.Certainly the evidenceof exploitation Atlantic often forced an alteration of course of this and otherspecies, as compiledby For- resultingin flockslanding on the coastof New Englandor Bermuda. The American Golden Plover (Pluvialis dorninica)shared the fall migrationroute from •For use of "extaille" and "extation," see Banks the breedinggrounds to Labrador and on to 1976. SouthAmerica. Clark (1905),writing partic- Volume 31, Number 2 127 ularly of the plover, noted that they were inite and confusing.The PassengerPigeon, usuallyobserved to fly on a beam wind, that is, Ectopistesmigratorius, seems to haveattracted perpendicularto the directionof the wind.He the most individual attention, and Forbush's relatedthis to the probabletrans-oceanic flight (1912) accountof that speciesincludes many course,indicating that flight from the Arctic referencesto writingsof the 1600sand 1700s. would lead the birds naturally to Labrador, During the 1800sthe fall flightsof hugeflocks and further flight across the prevailing of the Eskimo Curlew and the American westerhesor southwesterlieswould carry the Golden Plover after storms seem to have been birds past or near Bermuda,where somewere well known and eagerly anticipated by New known to stop. Further flight acrossthe pre- England gunners.It is difficult to believethat vmhng easterlytrade winds would swingthe this phenomenonwould have been overlooked birds back to a southerlythen southwesterly or unrecordedby the earlier writers, evenif the course and across northern South America, speciesinvolved were inadequately identified. whence the prevailing westerlieswould lead The apparent lack of mention of the huge them on to their winteringgrounds. flights of Eskimo Curlews along the north- The spring migration route is not well easterncoast prior to the 1800s, and the sug- known, but apparently took the birds across gestionthat this speciesdid occurin the 1700s the Andes, through Central America, and over in the Carolinas(where they did not occur in the Gulf of Mexico to the Texas coast, whence the 1800s)leads to the speculationthat the the birds movedslowly northward through the migratory pattern of the curlewsor the pattern Great Plains to the nestinggrounds. Passage of stormsthat forcedthem to the coastduring through the midwesternUnited States took their overwatermigration might have been place •n April, and the nestinggrounds were somewhat different in those two centuries. reached in May. The annual cycle of the Population levels. -- There is little in the Eskimo Curlew has been credibly, if dramat- literature that can lead to a firm estimate of the ically, fictionalizedby Bodsworth(1954). true original abundanceof the Eskimo Curlew. Early history. -- The Eskimo Curlew was Most of the commentsrelating the numbersof described in 1772, but there is at least one birds are subjective,and many may be exag- reference in the earlier literature that has been gerated by hindsight.Terms such as "vast associatedwith the species(Forbush 1912:417). numbers," "immense flocks," and "enormous In 1709 or earlier, John Lawson wrote of the numbers" were used to describe the abundance natural resources of Carolina, and noted that: of the birds in fall in eastern United States and "Of Curlews there are three sorts, and vast Canada.In Labrador,in 1833,arriving flocks numbersof each.They have all long bills, and were so densethat they remindedAudubon of differ neither in colournor shape,only in size. PassengerPigeons. Packard saw a flock a mile The largest is as big as a goodhen, the smaller long and nearly as broad, with an estimated the b•gnessof a snipe, or somethingbigger" 4000 or 5000 birds, in 1860 (Townsend and (Lawson1966:147-8). The small speciesmust Allen 1907).This amountsto a densityof only have been N. borealis. In the 19th century, one bird per 400 squareyards, which seems however,the Eskimo Curlew seemsnot to have rather low. There are other reportsof "mil- occurredalong the southeasterncoast except as lions" of birds in Newfoundland and 6n the a straggler. Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence Forbush's (1912) earliest discussion of this (Forbush1912). Flocks in springmigration in speciesin the northeasternUnited Statesis for the plainsalso reminded settlers of Passenger the early 1800s;he states,"We know nothing Pigeonsand werereported to cover40-50 acres deftroteof their migrationsin the early daysof when they landed (Swenk1916) but at unstated the colony.... "The literatureof the periodof density. colomzation of North America includes a con- It is possiblethat the curlew'stendency to sadetablebody of information on the abun- gatherinto large flocksand its rather narrow danceof bird life, particularly of waterfowland migratorypath led to overestimatesof the total other game species.Forbush (1912) reviewed populationsize. One tacitlyassumes that there muchof this,pointing out that the descriptions were large numbersof suchflocks, distributed and nomenclature of the birds are often indef- spatially and temporallyover the migratory 128 AmericanB•rds, March, 1977 front. If this is true, it seems reasonable that the fall (Forbush 1912:425), and on both Lab- fall populationsmay havenumbered in the tens rador and Newfoundland coasts the inhab- of millions. The populationin spring would itants killed all they could and preservedthem have been substantially smaller because of for winter use (Carroll 1910). Farther south, the mortality on the winteringgrounds and during curlewsvisited the New Englandcoast in var- the long migratory flights, but even then it iable numbersdepending on the weathercon- musthave been very large. ditionsof the season.When they were present, Timing of the population decline. -- large numbers apparently were taken. Bent Information on the time of the population (1929:133)mentions a wagonload taken in one declineis as vagueand retrospectiveas that on day; a wagon5 x 10 feet, filled uniformly to a original population levels. Most available depth of 3 feet, with 10 birds to a cubic foot, referencesmention the last recordedspecimen would hold approximately1500 birds. It •s not •n a particulararea, or the fact that the curlews really possiblefrom such isolatedincidents to werescarce at a particular time. There are only assessthe annual fall harvest,but it may be a few definite dates relative to changesin estimated to have been on the order of 1.5
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