Birds outside their comfort zone are more vulnerable to deforestation

Date:  May 9, 2019

Source:  Imperial College London

Members of the same bird species can have dramatically different responses to deforestation depending on where they live, finds a new study.

Predicting a species' sensitivity to environmental changes, such as deforestation or climate change, is crucial for designing conservation strategies.

These predictions are often based on a species' physical traits, and assume that all members of a species will respond the same.

However, members of a single species live across a large geographical range that encompasses areas with the right physical conditions for them, such as temperature and food sources.

Some populations of a species will inevitably live at the edge of their range, where conditions are less than perfect because they are either too cold or too hot. Now, in new research published this week in Nature Ecology & Evolution, a research team led by Imperial College London have investigated the effect living near the range edge has on bird species in Brazil.

By analysing 378 species detected over 211 sites spanning 2,000 km of Atlantic Forest in Brazil, the team found dramatic differences in sensitivity to deforestation between populations at the edge of the range and those nearer the 'core'.

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Underestimating combined threats of deforestation and wildlife trade will push Southeast Asian birds

Date:  October 7, 2018

Source:  University of Sheffield

The combined impact of deforestation and wildlife exploitation on bird numbers is severely underestimated and could lead to some species becoming extinct, a joint study by the University of Sheffield and National University of Singapore has found.

Scientists focused on Sundaland -- a hotspot of biodiversity in Southeast Asia, spanning Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Peninsular Malaysia -- where habitat loss, and hunting and wildlife trades are particularly intense.

Looking at 308 forest-dependent bird species, they found that when the loss of forest habitat and bird trapping in the area was examined together it resulted in a much higher average population loss than when accounted for separately.

The study calls for the threats to biodiversity to be considered in totality in order for effective measures to be implemented.

The research, which was conducted between October 2016 and July 2017, also suggests that about 50 to 90 of forest-dependent species in the region, such as the ruby-throated bulbul and white-crowned hornbill will be extinct by 2100.

Tropical forests are the most biodiverse ecosystem globally, however, extensive loss of tropical forests driven primarily by the expansion of agricultural land threatens the survival of forest species. Coupled with other anthropogenic disturbance such as logging, hunting and fires, the threat to biodiversity in these forests is amplified.

While the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has been tracking the different forms of threats to wildlife, the assessments tend to look at each form of threat separately. These threats, are however, interconnected and the combined impact could be more severe than currently estimated.

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Loss of breeding grounds hits a sad note for common songbird

Date:  November 29, 2017

Source:  Tulane University

A Tulane University researcher who studies bird migration has found that a decline in the number of wood thrushes is probably due to deforestation in Central America, not to the loss and degrading of forest in the United States where the songbird breeds.

The study by Caz Taylor, an associate professor in the Tulane Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, was published Nov. 6 in the open-access journal Scientific Reports.

Wood thrushes breed in the forests of the eastern United States and migrate in the winter to the forests of Central America. Although they remain a relatively common bird, the species has been declining rapidly since the early 1970's and several researchers have suggested that fragmentation of forests in breeding grounds are playing a major role.

In the new study, Taylor examines how breeding forest fragmentation relates to the shape and strength of density-dependence or how dwindling resources limit bird population. She was surprised to find that declines were more severe in regions where the forest was the least fragmented.

Read on 

Birds may no longer grace Mau beauty, warn experts

Date: August 08, 2015

About 300,000 species of birds are either killed or disappear annually because of cultural practices and the ongoing destruction of Mau forest.

Conservationists have raised concern that deforestation, forest fires that burn bird nests and use of pesticides in farming zones neighbouring it will reduce the birds population and eventually kill the multi-million tourism industry in Masai Mara Game Reserve.

“Birds are a vital component in the ecosystem because they play an important role in the biodiversity maintenance. They are as important as any other wildlife,” says Tuqa Jirmo, a senior Kenya Wildlife Service warden-Conservation Education and Community Extension and Public Programme.

He says the annual cultural practices where initiates from communities neighbouring the expansive forest are forced to kill different species of birds to prove their hunting prowess before turning into warriors has greatly contributed to the decline in the annual bird count by KWS.

The cultural practice is deep seated among the Maasai, Kipsigis, Ogieks among other communities neighbouring forests and water-catchment areas in the Rift Valley region. “Every year about 4,000 initiates kill an average of about 30 birds before becoming warriors.

This endangers the survival of birds in Mau forest and in the Mara,” he says. The various bird species, some with listed population have almost been wiped out to promote the cultural practices, a recent KWS bulletin says. “Conservation education should be taught among communities and in learning institutions,” says Jirmo.

The conservationist says although all birds are protected under local wildlife laws and international conventions, weak punishments meted out to culprits have not deterred the vice.

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Only One "Rio" Parrot Left

No Disney ending here: A rare blue parrot named Presley died last week, leaving only one known, wild-born Spix's macaw left. And, unlike in the movie "Rio," which Presley may have inspired, he didn't leave behind any offspring.

The native Brazilian birds are already believed to be extinct in the wild, after deforestation and non-native honeybees started competing with them for nest space. The last sighting of a Spix's macaw in the wild came in 2000.

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What a Bunch of Dodos! Catastrophic Mass Extinction of Birds in Pacific Islands Followed Arrival of First People

Mar. 25, 2013 — Research carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and collaborators reveals that the last region on earth to be colonised by humans was home to more than 1,000 species of birds that went extinct soon after people reached their island homes.

The paper was published today (March 25th) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Almost 4,000 years ago, tropical Pacific Islands were an untouched paradise, but the arrival of the first people in places like Hawaii and Fiji caused irreversible damage to these natural havens, due to overhunting and deforestation. As a result, birds disappeared. But understanding the scale and extent of these extinctions has been hampered by uncertainties in the fossil record.

Professor Tim Blackburn, Director of ZSL's Institute of Zoology says: "We studied fossils from 41 tropical Pacific islands and using new techniques we were able to gauge how many extra species of bird disappeared without leaving any trace."

They found that 160 species of non-passerine land birds (non-perching birds which generally have feet designed for specific functions, for example webbed for swimming) went extinct without a trace after the first humans arrived on these islands alone.

"If we take into account all the other islands in the tropical Pacific, as well as seabirds and songbirds, the total extinction toll is likely to have been around 1,300 bird species," Professor Blackburn added.

Continued: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130325160509.htm

Bird conservation in extremely small tropical rainforest patches in southwest China

Xue Changa, b, 

Rui-chang Quana,  ,  , 

Lin Wangc

a CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China

b Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

c Ecology, Conservation, and Environment Center (ECEC), Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS, 32 Jiaochang Donglu, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.09.024, How to Cite or Link Using DOI

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Abstract

Tropical forests support high levels of avian diversity but these areas have been impacted by extensive deforestation. The lowland tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna in southwest China is one such impacted hotspot. In this region, rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations have replaced most of the original forest, but numerous small fragments of forest remain. To assess the value of these fragments to avian diversity, we classified the fifteen selected remnant forest patches into three size categories, <1 ha, 1–3 ha, and 3–6 ha, and conducted avifauna surveys. We found that 97 bird species inhabit the fragments and that bird diversity increases with patch area. The resident species composition similarity index was low among forest patches, both within and across size categories, and also low between the wet and dry seasons. Ground insectivores, frugivores and large bird species were the most vulnerable to habitat fragmentation. Our study encouragingly shows that fragments can play an important role in bird conservation in regions that now lack large tracts of natural forest; however, current patches are too small to support stable annual populations of some species, while others are more tolerant of fragmentation. We discuss these findings and provide conservation strategies to improve bird conservation within rubber plantations in southern China.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320712004193