Rare seabird rediscovered in Dominica

ROSEAU, Dominica– More than 150 years after it was believed to have been wiped out in Dominica, the rare 968 Diablotin, also known as the Black-capped Petrel, has been rediscovered.

A team of scientists from Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) and Dominica’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries made the discovery over the mountains of Dominica, according to a release issued on Wednesday.

The seabird – considered one of the world’s rarest seabirds with an estimate of only 1,000 to 2,000 pairs remaining – was once abundant in Dominica, but thought to be wiped out in the late 1800s due to over-hunting and the introduction of mammalian species, EPIC said. The last confirmed nesting of the bird in Dominica was in 1862.