Migration route of secretive Steppe Whimbrel discovered

29 Apr 2019

The Steppe Whimbrel is the rarest and least understood member of the highly threatened Numeniini tribe (curlews and godwits). But considering they were believed to be extinct 25 years ago, it’s unsurprising that we know so little about them. A newly published report is beginning to fill in the gaps in our knowledge.

By Cressida Stevens

The story of the Steppe Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus alboaxillaris is a bizarre one. There is a very real risk in conservation that birds can go extinct before we even know they exist, or know enough about them to make efforts to protect them. Very little was known about the Steppe Whimbrel – a rare sub-species of the Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus - before it was declared extinct in 1994. However, recent sightings have revealed the Steppe Whimbrel lives on, and we now have a second chance to research and rescue this enigmatic bird.

The Steppe Whimbrel is one of four subspecies of the Whimbrel. The Whimbrel itself has an IUCN rating of Least Concern – but were the Steppe Whimbrel to be its own species, it would be classified as Critically Endangered. A recent review of the subspecies’ status estimates that there are a mere 100 individuals left, at most, and the population trend is declining.

For 30 years, this wader managed to escape the notice of humans and, like a lot of lost wildlife, it began to experience cultural extinction. This is where people stop looking for an animal, it is soon omitted from modern field guides and its existence is forgotten. But three years after the birds were consigned to history, they were re-found in Russia.

It is often said that you find something when you stop looking. In this case, it was actually during search efforts for the closely-related Slender-billed Curlew Numenius tenuirostris in 1997, that researchers stumbled upon Steppe Whimbrels close to the Ural Mountains in Russia. This initial discovery was followed by regular sightings in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, being a migratory bird, little can be understood about it when only seen during part of the year. It was not until February 2016, that this bird was rediscovered at its wintering grounds in Africa, for the first time on the continent since 1965.

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