Birds population is in danger !

Catastrophic fall in numbers reveals bird populations in crisis throughout the world

By Michael McCarthy
Monday, 22 September 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/n...rld-937573.html


The birds of the world are in serious trouble, and common species are in now decline all over the globe, a comprehensive new review suggests today.

From the turtle doves of Europe to the vultures of India, from the bobwhite quails of the US to the yellow cardinals of Argentina, from the eagles of Africa to the albatrosses of the Southern Ocean, the numbers of once-familiar birds are tumbling everywhere, according to the study from the conservation partnership BirdLife International.

Their falling populations are compelling evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth – including human life, BirdLife says in its report, State of The World's Birds.

The report, released today with an accompanying website at the BirdLife World Conservation Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, identifies many key global threats, including the intensification of industrial-scale agriculture and fishing, the spread of invasive species, logging, and the replacement of natural forest with monocultural plantations.

It goes on to suggest that in the long term, human-induced climate change may be the most serious stress.

Based in Cambridge, BirdLife International is a global alliance of conservation organisations working in more than 100 countries and territories which is now the leading authority on the status of birds, their habitats and the issues and problems affecting them.

When brought together, as in its new report, the regional pictures of bird declines combine to present a startling picture of a whole class of living things on a steep downward slope.

A remarkable 45 per cent of common European birds are declining, with the familiar European turtle dove, for example, having lost 62 per cent of its population in the last 25 years, while on the other side of the globe, resident Australian wading birds have seen population losses of 81 per cent in the same period.

Twenty common North American birds have more than halved in number in the last four decades, while in Asia, the millions of white-rumped vultures which once filled the skies have crashed by 99.9 per cent and the species is now critically endangered.

"Many of these birds have been a familiar part of our everyday lives, and people who would not necessarily have noticed other environmental indicators have seen their numbers slipping away, and are wondering why," said Dr Mike Rands, BirdLife's chief executive.

All the world's governments have committed themselves to slowing or halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of national budgets means that this target is almost certain to be missed, according to the report.

"Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer, allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity," Dr Rands said.

"Because these creatures are found almost everywhere on earth, they can act as our eyes and ears, and what they are telling us is that the deterioration in biodiversity and the environment is accelerating, not slowing.

"Effective biodiversity conservation is easily affordable, requiring relatively trivial sums at the scale of the global economy. For example, to maintain the protected area network which would safeguard 90 percent of Africa's biodiversity would cost less than $1bn a year. Yet in a typical year, the global community provides about $300m.

"The world is failing in its 2010 pledge. The challenge is to harness international biodiversity commitments and ensure that concrete actions are taken now."

The State of the World's Birds report can be found at www.birdlife.org/sowb


Birds in peril

*Europe

The report highlights the decline of common European birds. An analysis of 124 of Europe's common birds over a 26-year period reveals that 56 species (45 per cent) have declined across 20 European countries, with farmland birds badly hit. The familiar common cuckoo Cuculus canorus has declined by 17 per cent. The European turtle dove Streptopelia turtur, grey partridge Perdix perdix and corn bunting Miliaria calandra have dropped 62, 79 and 61 per cent respectively.


*African migrants to Europe

Birds migrating between Europe, the Middle East and Africa have suffered 40 per cent population declines over three decades. "Birds impacted by agricultural intensification in Europe may suffer excessive hunting in the Middle East and desertification of African wintering grounds," warned Dr Rands. "The Eurasian wryneck Jynx torquilla, northern wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe, and common nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos are vanishing."


*Africa

Birds of prey are in widespread decline. In just three decades, 11 eagle species declined by 86-98 per cent in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. In addition, six large vulture species – including the once widespread Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus – have suffered very dramatic losses.


*Middle East and Central Asia

Many common species such as the Eurasian eagle owl Bubo bubo are under pressure. "The global population of Houbara bustard Chlamydotis undulata may have fallen 35 per cent in the past 20 years," noted Dr Rands.


*Asia

"Thirty years ago, tens of millions of white-rumped vultures Gyps bengalensis were flying the skies of Asia. The species was probably the most abundant large bird of prey in the world: it is now on the brink of extinction," Dr Rands said. Numbers have fallen by 99.9 per cent since 1992. "Migratory shorebirds and the wetland habitats they rely on for their annual journeys, are also under threat," added Dr Rands. Sixty-two percent of migratory waterbird species in Asia are declining or extinct.


*North America

Twenty common species have suffered population declines of over 50 per cent in the last 40 years. "Northern bobwhite, Colinus virginianus, has declined the most dramatically, with population reductions of 82 per cent," noted Dr Rands. Other widespread species suffering include the evening grosbeak Coccothraustes vespertinus (78 per cent), northern pintail Anas acuta (77 per cent) and boreal chickadee Poecile hudsonicus (73 per cent).


*North America to Latin America migrants

"57 per cent of neotropical [Central and South American] migrants monitored at their breeding grounds in the US have suffered declines over the last four decades," warned Dr Rands. "Migratory species such as the Wilson's phalarope Steganopus tricolor and semipalmated sandpiper Calidris pusilla are disappearing."

*Latin America

Bird monitoring in El Salvador reports that 25 per cent of common resident species – including the flame-coloured tanager Piranga bidentata, chestnut-capped brush-finch Arremon brunneinucha, and collared trogon Trogon collaris – have experienced significant declines over the last decade. No monitored species saw their numbers rise. "Formerly widespread species like the yellow cardinal Gubernatrix cristata, once common in Argentina, are endangered," noted Dr Rands.


*Pacific

"Studies of resident Australian waders reveal that 81 per cent of their populations disappeared in 25 years," said Dr Rands. Seabirds are threatened at a faster rate globally than all other groups. Nineteen of the 22 species of albatross are threatened with extinction, including the critically endangered Chatham albatross Thalassarche eremita.

Save our bees! SAVE OUR LIFE!

What’s the buzz about all our missing bees?

8:53am Friday 11th July 2008
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/2390300...ur_missing_bees
By Iris Clapp »


The disappearing bees was a great Doctor Who storyline.

With the universe teetering on the abyss - courtesy, naturally, of the Daleks - and the Doctor literally lost in space, he suddenly came to the conclusion that the bees had not been disappearing at all, but fleeing the Earth because they had sensed it was time to make a swift exit.

Dig deep into the internet and similar stories abound; the bees are getting out before doomsday.

That there are fewer domestic honeybees and their feral cousins, wild bees - bumblebees - worldwide is not in dispute. The reasons why, though, are much more prosaic.

"It's the varroa mite," said Peter Inson. "It came into the UK, Australia and New Zealand about 15 years ago, probably on the bodies of live bees brought in illegally. The mite lives on the bees' body fluids and eventually kills them."

The mite attacks all bees, both domestic and wild, and can decimate hives. While beekeepers can ensure their honeybees take anti-varroa drugs via a sugary paste, bumblebees are on their own.

"But the mites are already developing a resistance," said Mr Inson, "so scientists are having to adapt the drugs. Still we have learnt a lot about how to cope with the problem facing domestic bees. Unfortunately, that is not helping the bumblebees. There are fewer feral colonies today than there were a decade ago."

Mr Inson is a beekeeper (an apiarist) and a member of Colchester Beekeepers' Association. He has seven hives in the garden of his home at East Mersea.

Each hive contains a single colony and the number of bees in the colony can be as high as 50,000 in the summer, when the bees are actively collecting pollen and making honey, to no more than 4,000 in the winter.

Mr Inson doesn't just keep bees to sell honey. He is finding he is more and more in demand from local farmers who want his domestic bees to pollinate their crops because there are fewer bumblebees. The wild bee may be more attracted to crop flowers than the honeybee (honeybees prefer nectar-rich plants) but where needs must, the honeybee will rise to the occasion.

"My bees have already pollinated bean plants," said Mr Inson, "and the farmer was so pleased he is thinking of planting borage and hiring my bees again."

It isn't only the varroa mite which has reduced bumblebee numbers. Intensive farming and a cut in the number of insect-pollinated crops (more cereal crops, fewer bean crops) have also led to decline. Three of the UK bumblebee populations are already extinct and another nine are on the endangered species list.

Brian Finnerty, spokesman for the East Anglia branch of the National Union of Farmers (NFU), said pollination by bees is worth £200 million a year to the agriculture and horticulture industries.

A further decline in bumblebee numbers could have a serious economic impact on the farming industry, which is why the Department for Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) National Bee Unit is looking at ways to give the bumblebee a fighting chance.

"They (bumblebees) play a very important role," said Mr Finnerty. "They are the best pollinators. That is why so much effort is going into trying to reverse their decline."

Then there is the UK's intensive house-building programme, particularly in north Essex and the Thames Gateway (east and south-east London, parts of Kent and Essex - 120,000 new homes by 2016) which conservationists claim is "decimating" the bumblebees' habitat.

Ben Darvill, of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, revealed four types of bumblebee, amongst the most endangered species in the UK, thrive on wild flowers in the Thames Gateway area.

"We recognise they are rare and yet they (the Government) still seem determined to let developers build on these sites," said Mr Darvill. "Without bumblebees you are talking about reduced crop yields and sweeping changes to the countryside."

Meanwhile, America has a more perplexing bee problem. Colonies there really are disappearing. There is even a name for it - collapsing colony disorder (CCD) - and it is getting worse.

"There is no explanation for it as yet," said Mr Inson. "The bees just abandon their hives and vanish. There is no sign of disease, no sign of anything.

"Oh, there have been theories. Climate change hasn't been dismissed, but the notion that electrical impulses from mobile phones were affecting the bees' navigation was quickly dismissed."

Which makes it all very definitely more Doctor Who than Defra.

WHY ARE BUMBLEBEES IMPORTANT?



Bumblebees work on plants with no nectar, so play a crucial role in the pollination of farm flowers and vegetables
The farming industry relies heavily on insect pollination. Few, if any, bean flowers, for example, would set pods unless they were pollinated by insects, particularly bumblebees, which the Department for Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) National Bee Unit says are the most efficient pollinators
Many apple, pear and plum trees rely on bumblebees for good harvests.
BUMBLEBEES AT RISK

Britain and Ireland have 25 native species of bumblebee.

Five are currently listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan because of their rapid decline - bombus distinguendus (great yellow bumblebee), bombus humilis (carder bumblebee); bombus ruderatus (large garden bumblebee), bombus subterraneus (short-haired bumblebee) and bombus sylvarum (shrill carder bee).