Bird Species Face Extinction Spike 50 Times Faster Than Current Rate

[hatrack]

A group of renowned biologists say if nothing's done, birds could go extinct 50 times faster, eliminating about 1,200 species by century's end. The reasons: habitat destroyed by development, global warming and invasive species -- especially your cat. "If we lose species -- parrots, toucans -- our world will be a poorer place," said Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Duke University.

His fears are supported by a U.S. study, released just last week, that showed 30 North American shorebird species on pace to decline by 36 percent in the next 20 years. And the subject hits close to home, where Merritt Island was the site of the most recent bird extinction in Florida and mainland America: the dusky seaside sparrow, declared extinct in 1990. Conservationists fear inland species such as the Florida scrub jay or Everglades snail kite could be next.

"Florida is losing the battle to save most bird species," said Charles Lee, a lobbyist with Audubon Florida. "I think we have an increasing challenge to all of these species as development continues to march across Florida." For most of the past 500 years, about one bird species went extinct annually across the globe. In the past few decades, conservation efforts improved the situation, with just one species on average going extinct every three years.

But if current threats persist, Pimm and his colleagues expect the extinction rate to jump to as many as 15 species a year within the next 93 years. That would threaten about 12 percent of the 10,000 known bird species.

EDIT

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070123/NEWS01/701230332/1006

[amitten]

1. Hatrack, why don't you just come here now and shoot me in the

freakin' head?

Good CHRIST your posts are depressing!

AND I CAN'T DO ANYTHING AT ALL TO HELP CHANGE ANY OF IT! :mad:

[pitohui]

2. well yeah a lot of them already are extinct

we don't count them as extinct until we haven't seen them for 50 years but there's plenty in hawaii not seen for 20 or 30 years, realistically, these birds are gone

plenty of parrots the same, there are no reproducing adults, spix macaw is extinct, last birds disappeared in 2001 but we've got to wait 50 years to declare them officially extinct, come on, when you know where the last three birds are and they drop off, that's it, jim

in other words i think it's already many more species a year than we have acknowledged

i give up hope for ground birds, people simply won't control their cats, so the scrub jay and any remaining florida burrowing owls, forget it

the south american snail kite competing w. local snail kites, i don't get that, how on earth did it get there, that is not an imported pet species, how would you even feed a snail kite?

[intheflow]

3. The Great Backyard Bird Count, February 16-19

The Audubon Society and Cornell's Lab of Ornithology join to sponsor the Great Backyard Bird Count every year. They use the data collected by citizens all over the country (and world) to study such things as species decline. I encourage all who care about this to participate this year. All you need to do is watch your backyard for as little as 15 minutes a day and see what kind of birds are flying through.

More info here: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc /