Is the Eskimo Curlew extinct?

By Al Lowe
Contributor

Years ago, this continent was filled with birds and animals by the millions, or sometimes by billions.
The Passenger Pigeon, for example, was once the most numerous bird in the world, estimated to be anywhere from 10 to 30 billion strong. The last one died in 1911. The Great Auk has disappeared, and the Carolina Parrakeet, both of which lived here in uncountable numbers.
And here is another bird: is it extinct, or are there still a few left? I refer to the Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis).
Curlews all have somewhat similar characteristics. They are generally brownish, with a mottled look about them. They have long legs like sandpipers and plovers. But the thing which distinguishes them quite easily is that they have long beaks which curve down.
You might possibly see one species of curlew migrating through here in the spring. It will not likely be the Eskimo Curlew. This was a bird which was not the largest of the curlews, but did weigh in at about a pound, when it was good and fat.
These birds had several habits which eventually did them in. They nested in the Arctic, Northwest Territories and so on, but they migrated in immense numbers all the way down the east coast. These huge flocks were the subject of intense hunting. A single shotgun blast could bring down as many as 15 or 20.
Since they were good to eat, they were shot by the hundreds of thousands for the markets of the great eastern cities. One hunter reported that he would have no trouble in getting 60 or 70 birds an hour for the table trade. They wintered in Argentina, where they were also hunted by the millions. In the spring, they returned to the Arctic, up through the center of the continent from Texas through western Canada. Here, they were hunted again without mercy. Remember, hunting laws were not generally passed until about 1900 or thereabouts. Some of the old-timers in the west said that they went out with wagons when the curlews were coming.
As far as we can tell, the pressure of hunting alone caused this bird's downfall. After all, it was hunted all fall, all winter, and all spring. Its original numbers must have been in the billions.
The Eskimo Curlew may not be totally extinct, however. There have been several quite reliable sightings in the last 40 or 50 years, so perhaps this is not quite the end of their particular story.
Ornithologists are not very optimistic about this, though. One thing is for sure, the immense flocks which once darkened the skies of this continent will never return again.
One more species has (almost) succumbed to the greediness and carelessness of man.