Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species was formerly found in Japan's Ryukyu Islands, but it has not been recorded since 1936 and is now Extinct. The reasons for this are unknown, though it may have been due to habitat destruction.
Population justification
None remain; a dramatic decline to extinction occurred from the late 19th to the first half of the 20th centuries.
Columba jouyi was endemic to Okinawa and Kerama, and the Daito Islands, in the Nansei Shoto Islands, Japan (Stattersfield et al. 1998). It was described in 1887 from a type in the Tokyo Educational Museum (Stejneger 1887), and is also known from three skins in the Natural History Museum at Tring (Knox and Walters 1994). It apparently declined rapidly (and inexplicably), and was last recorded on Okinawa in 1904, and on Daito in 1936 (Stattersfield et al. 1998).
It is likely to have inhabited the forested interior of the islands on which it lived.
The reasons for its extinction are unknown, though it may have been due to habitat destruction (Hume 2017). Predation by introduced cats and rats may also have been a threat (Stattersfield et al. 1998).
Text account compilers
Vine, J.
Contributors
Brooks, T., Khwaja, N., Mahood, S. & Martin, R.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Ryukyu Woodpigeon Columba jouyi. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/ryukyu-woodpigeon-columba-jouyi on 25/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 25/12/2024.