 The Zapata rail was discovered by Spanish zoologist Fermín Zanón Cervera in March 1927 in the Zapata Swamp near Santo Tomás , in the southern Matanzas Province of Cuba . The swamp holds one other bird found nowhere else , the Zapata wren , and also gives its name to the Zapata sparrow . Due to ongoing habitat loss in its limited range , its small population size , and predation by introduced mammals and catfish , the Zapata rail is evaluated as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species . Tourism and climate change may pose threats in the future . 
