Bird species: Dying out even faster than thought

Bird species are dying out five times faster than previously assumed, according to Norwegian researchers. Scientists at the University of Oslo concluded in a research paper that species today have barely 3,000 years left before extinction. Compared to the pre-human era, animals are disappearing 1,000 times faster, the scientists explained. The findings support the

Wild beim Wild Editorial Team · 28 February 2020

Vogelarten Sterben noch schneller aus als gedacht

Bird species are dying out even faster than thought

Bird species are dying out five times faster than previously assumed, according to Norwegian researchers.

Scientists at the University of Oslo concluded in a research paper that species today have barely 3,000 years left before extinction.

Compared to the pre-human era, animals are disappearing 1,000 times faster, the scientists explained. The findings support the view of many experts that the Earth is on the brink of a sixth mass extinction, one that is being massively accelerated by humans.

The scientists presented their findings in the «Biology Letters» of the British Royal Society. There are currently just under 11,000 bird species on the planet, while 187 species have gone extinct over the past 500 years and the populations of many others have declined.

In their calculations, the Oslo researchers took into account that the extinction of a species is only the final step of a longer process. To this end, they analysed the Red List of endangered species. They examined how the classification of more than 11,000 bird species had changed between 1988 and 2016. According to this, 361 were “uplisted” — their populations had shrunk and their level of threat had increased, even though they have not yet gone extinct.

A piece of good news

Climate change is not the greatest threat to global biodiversity, it was further stated, but rather the destruction of natural habitats through human activity.

At the same time, the scientists highlighted a piece of good news from the research: species conservation projects had been shown to have a significant effect. These efforts had reduced the extinction rate by almost 40 per cent. However, species conservation must not wait until a species has already almost disappeared.

As recently as early February, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) presented new data on bird populations in Germany. According to this, the number of breeding birds in the country fell by 14 million between 1992 and 2016 – a decline of eight per cent. It was above all the number of farmland birds that had shrunk. For example, populations of grey partridge and lapwing had decreased by almost 90 per cent since 1992.

More on the subject of recreational hunting: What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.

The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.

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