Emily Chan
There were several theories as to what drove the birds into extinction, including deforestation, exposure to avian diseases from domestic chickens, and competing with honeybees for roosting and nesting space.
New findings suggest that the Carolina parakeet was actually two subspecies instead of one whole species. After poring over historical accounts and museum collections, scientists realized that there was a Midwestern and an Eastern subspecies, both of which went extinct but at different times.
The Midwestern population died out around 1914, and the Eastern subspecies disappeared about thirty years later. A lot of changes occurred over the thirty-year span, so this new revelation shows that the two subspecies probably faced different sets of struggles.
So far, the verdict is that the end of the Carolina parakeet was due to a combination of disease, habitat loss, and proximity to humans, with the main cause still unknown.
While the Carolina parakeet’s extinction process remains inconclusive, the new research can be used to help protect existing parrots from suffering the same fate.
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