After ten
years of conservation efforts, one of Sweden’s rarest breeding bird species,
the Black-tailed Godwit, is making a stunning recovery.
In 1758,
Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus named one of the large waders of
his native country Scopopax limosa. Linnaeus was famously the ‘father of
modern taxonomy’ and it is to him that science owes its two-term, Latin naming system
(‘binomial nomenclature’) for living species. In this
case limosa derives from limus, meaning ‘mud’ – quite apt for a
species biologically equipped to wade through wet grasslands with its
distinctive long legs and long bill. And now, exactly 260 years after its
Linnean naming, this particular wader – that many will recognise by its English
common name, the Black-tailed Godwit - is making a stunning recovery in Sweden
following several decades of decline.
The
Black-tailed godwit is one of the rarest breeding bird species in Sweden and is
Near Threatened globally. Although widespread with a large global population
spanning western Europe to Central Asia and Russia, the species’ numbers have
dropped alarmingly rapidly along significant parts of its range. The root cause
lies unequivocally with the dawn of industrial agriculture. The plight of the
Black-tailed Godwit is shared by many other European wading birds, notably the
Curlew, Oystercatcher and Northern Lapwing. These species were once a familiar
sight around Europe’s farmland but earlier mowing dates are disrupting the
breeding season and modern drainage practices are destroying their habitats.
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