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Description
The Atitlàn Grebe, Podilymbus gigas, is now extinct. It was flightless and only occurred on Lake Atitlàn in Guatemala. Human disturbances caused its demise: small- and largemouth bass were introduced to the lake, eating up not only the crabs and fish that were the grebe's food, but little grebe chicks as well. People built houses on the shore, and destroyed the vegetation. All this led to a sharp decline in grebe numbers. A conservation effort was started in the sixties, and things looked well for a while, but there happened in 1976 an earthquake which cracked the lake bottom, causing a significant fall in the lake's water level. The weakened grebe population was unable to cope with this. The species was declared extinct in 1990. Its closest remaining relative is the Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, which is much smaller and has a more slender bill.

Description
The Atitlàn Grebe, Podilymbus gigas, is now extinct. It was flightless and only occurred on Lake Atitlàn in Guatemala. Human disturbances caused its demise: small- and largemouth bass were introduced to the lake, eating up not only the crabs and fish that were the grebe's food, but little grebe chicks as well. People built houses on the shore, and destroyed the vegetation. All this led to a sharp decline in grebe numbers. A conservation effort was started in the sixties, and things looked well for a while, but there happened in 1976 an earthquake which cracked the lake bottom, causing a significant fall in the lake's water level. The weakened grebe population was unable to cope with this. The species was declared extinct in 1990. Its closest remaining relative is the Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, which is much smaller and has a more slender bill.