A is for Atitlan Grebe

Atitlán Grebe
Podilymbus gigas

Where it lived: wetlands (Lake Atitlán) in Guatemala

Last seen in: 1986

Declared extinct by IUCN in: 1994

Extinction causes:

  • predation by large-mouth bass introduced to the lake in 1960

  • habitat destruction from reed cutting

  • increased tourism and boat traffic

  • political unrest, resulting in reduced monitoring and protection

  • falling lake levels due to a 1976 earthquake

  • drowning in fishing nets

“With sorrow, I realized that the grebes had been both biological indicators of the doom facing Atitlán, and martyrs to the country’s fledgling conservation movement. They had alerted everyone to the growing ecological ruin of the lake, but the news had come too late to help them.”

—Anne LaBastille, a pioneering biologist who worked to protect the Atitlán grebe. Read more in her story, "The Giant Grebes of Atitlán: A Chronicle of Extinction.”