Extinct in the wild Socorro Dove; closely related to mourning doves
Gorgeous Socorro Dove i photographed at the Kölner Zoo. I looked around the place for an hour without being able to spot the animal, until it landed directly next to me on the railing.
Sadly, after I took these pictures a man trying to be a disney princess tried to touch the bird and it flew away.. I was incredibly happy to have seen it in person tho.
This species is extinct in the wild and only survives through captive animals. Last documented wild one was in 1972 and the species has been officially extinct in the wild since 1983.
The cause of extinction was from introduced animals to Socorro, such as feral domestic cats, rats, mice and sheep.
Socorro Doves are very closely related to mourning doves and many captive animals were suspected or proven to be hybrids between the two species. Currently there are less than 200 of them, but an active breeding program is in action, hoping to be able to introduce them back to the wild in the near future.
This is pretty much a respost because the mod of this subreddit suggested I could post this here too. So a thank you to them for making me aware of this great subreddit 🙂👍
The pictures can be used by anybody as long as given credit to my iNaturalist @i-oda