Rodents and cats together wiped out 92 species of birds, study says

Destructive humans have played a major role in wiping out at least 187 species of birds since 1500. Two natural enemies – rodents and cats – are nearly fatal.

According to State of the World’s Birds, a global study on the status of avian species, introduced mammals or invasive predators are the primary drivers of the extinction of local bird species. While rodents have been linked to the extinction of 52 bird species, cats accounted for 40.

“At least 187 avian extinctions have been confirmed or suspected since 1500″ [baseline year for the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature]90% of which belong to endemic insular species, concentrated on the Hawaiian Islands, mainland Australia and islands, the Mascarene Islands, New Zealand and French Polynesia,” states the study’s section on extinction patterns and trends.

The birds that disappeared from these islands belonged to 109 taxa or taxonomical groups, most of them (33) in the Hawaiian Islands.

“Cats were introduced to control rodents and they reached these islands with humans as pets, companions or stowaways,” said Ashwin Viswanathan of the India-based Nature Conservation Foundation. Hindu,

He is one of nine authors of the study, led by Manchester Metropolitan University and published May 5.

The study states, “Over the past 600 years, extinction rates peaked in the late nineteenth century, before rising again in the late twentieth century, declining slightly in the early twentieth and mid-twentieth centuries.” “

“This change reflects a lag in insular extinctions and an increase in extinctions of continentally distributed species in highly fragmented tropical regions,” it says, citing the example of north-eastern Brazil, where two species – Cryptic treehunter (Cichlocolaptes) mazarbernetti) and Alagoas leaf-cleaner ( Philidor Novasik) – recently became extinct.

The cryptic treehunter was described as a new species from historical museum specimens after its extinction. From the same area in Brazil, the Pernambuco dwarf owl ( glaucidium murorum) is strongly suspected of extinction, while the unspecified sighting of the purple-winged ground pigeon ( paraclarvis geoffroic) has raised hopes for its continued existence.

But for species like Stresemann’s bristlefront, emergency conservation intervention may be too late ( Merulaxis stresemani) with just another cherry-throated tanner ( pneumosia rowry) with the existing 11 known individuals, the study says.

Determining recent extinctions can be problematic, given the difficulty of tracing the last remaining individual death, especially in remote and poorly surveyed locations where there may be many potentially extinct species, the study warns. .

It says, “Wrongly classifying a species as extinct risks the so-called Romeo error of premature termination of conservation action and may also lead to a loss of scientific credibility on the subsequent ‘rediscovery’ of extinct species.” ”

The study said 144 birds were “rediscovered” in the 122-year period from 1889, of which 86 percent are at risk of extinction. Examples of red-listed birds are the “rediscovered” Cebu Flowerpecker ( dykem quadricolor) and the New Zealand Hurricane-Petrel ( Fregeta Mauriana,