Number twice previous estimates, many of these were never documented Around one in nine bird species has gone extinct in the past 126,000 years, according to a study published in Nature Communications, and humans probably drove most of those extinctions. The findings suggest the rate of bird extinctions is more than double the number estimated previously — and that more than half of the extinct bird species were never documented. The global magnitude of these previously undetected extinctions is likely to “come as a shock to many”, says Jamie Wood, a terrestrial ecologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia. “The sobering thing is that this estimate could actually be conservative,” he says. Over centuries, humans have triggered waves of extinctions among birds and other an...
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The ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that few if any living bird watchers have ever seen, has been given a six-month reprieve from being placed on the U.S. government's extinct list, even though the last confirmed sighting was nearly eight decades ago. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the bird - the largest known U.S. woodpecker - on the list for consideration as an extinct species, bumping it from the critically endangered list. The declaration would mean that the animal no longer has any any legal protection it had as an endangered species. The ivory-billed woodpecker, feared extinct for 60 years, was seen in a remote part of Arkansas, ornithologists said on April 28, 2005. REUTERS The move raised an outcry among birdwatchers who asked to the agency to hold o...
Read MoreOver four decades after they became extinct locally, rhinos are roaming again the wilds of Mozambique, which is bringing the endangered species from South Africa in efforts to breathe new life into its parks and boost local tourism. A group of rangers captured, sedated and moved black and white rhinos over 1,000 miles (1,610 km) to Mozambique's Zinave National Park, which has over 400,000 hectares and more than 2,300 other reintroduced animals. Workers guide a tranquillised rhino to a container during the relocation of the first 19 white rhinos from South Africa to Zinave National Park in Mozambique, in Lephalale in the Limpopo province, South Africa, May 30, 2022. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko "Rhinos are important to the ecosystem, which is one of the reasons why we're moving them all...
Read MoreStudy conclusion mirrors shocking losses previously shown in North America Staggering declines in bird populations are taking place around the world. So concludes a study from scientists at multiple institutions, published in the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct overexploitation of many species are cited as the key threats to avian biodiversity. Climate change is identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines. "We are now witnessing the first signs of a new wave of extinctions of continentally distributed bird species," says lead author Alexander Lees, senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom and also a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Avian d...
Read MoreA research group rediscovered a plant called Gasteranthus extinctus, at Centinela Ridge in Western Ecuador, named to anticipate its extinction Two University of Miami researchers were part of a team that rediscovered a tropical plant species believed to be extinct for almost 40 years. At the encouragement of his advisor, biology associate professor Kenneth Feeley, graduate student Riley Fortier joined a small expedition in November to the Centinela Ridge in western Ecuador, a place well known to biologists for its many rare species. The team was searching for a low-lying South American wildflower named Gasteranthus extinctus, which was discovered in the 1980s. The species was given its unique moniker in 2000 because scientists expected the plant to be extinct, since many of the Ecua...
Read MoreStrong evidence shows process is already underway caused by human activities The history of life on Earth has been marked five times by events of mass biodiversity extinction caused by extreme natural phenomena. Today, many experts warn that a Sixth Mass Extinction crisis is underway, this time entirely caused by human activities. A comprehensive assessment of evidence of this ongoing extinction event was published recently in the journal Biological Reviews by biologists from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France. Shells of land snails from Rurutu (Austral Islands, French Polynesia) -- recently extinct before they were collected and described scientifically. Phot: O. Gargominy, A. Sartori “Drastically increased rates o...
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