Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!noao!ncar!mephisto!prism!sun13!sun16.scri.fsu.edu!sandee
From: sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: trivia quiz answers
Summary: Atitlan Grebe
Keywords: trivia quiz
Message-ID: <675@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 13 Sep 90 15:00:16 GMT
References: <1197@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>
Sender: news@sun13.scri.fsu.edu
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
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In article <1197@cluster.cs.su.oz.au> andrewt@cluster.cs.su.oz.au (Andrew Taylor) writes:
>I believe the Atitlan Grebe from Guatamala is extinct, could fly (very weakly)
>and may have been a subspecies of the Pied-Billed. Definite answers welcome.

The Atitlan Grebe is extinct - I read an article on it, but I forget the 
details. It was restricted to the fairly large Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Causes quoted for its extinction are (1) competetion for food by introduced
bass, (2) habitat destruction by reed-cutting (3) hunting (although illegal)
and (4) recreational development of the area resulting in more habitat 
destruction and disturbance.
It was definitely flightless.
It was regarded by some authors as conspecific with Pied-billed Grebe, but
observations showed that the two species did not interbreed. At the time of
its demise, it was classified by the A.O.U. as a full species. And as the 
A.O.U. uses interbreeding as the criterium for species determination, and as
no further evidence on that can be obtained, it will no doubt remain a species.

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045