Some 500,000 wild song birds illegally removed from Ukraine in past 10 years - expert

KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – An organized criminal group consisting of foreigners of Arabic origin who smuggled around 500,000 wild song birds from the country in the past 10 years, in particular, goldfinches, tits, redpolls, bullfinches and siskins, Director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreiko has said.

"According to our information, this group organized by the Arabs has been operating in Ukraine for about 10 years. They took out about 0.5 million wild song birds by air. This is only smuggled, and during the bird catching and transportation tens of times more are killed. Damage in $ 2.5 million has been caused to Ukraine," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

Boreiko also said that only in 2017 from the Zhuliany airport to Lebanon and Oman 26,950 goldfinches were exported in twenty batches.

According to the ecologist, the Arabs pay UAH 50 for one bird to Ukrainian bird catchers, in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates they get EUR 50-70 for one bird.

"In these countries, goldfinches are used as singers, or they are eaten. They make pate from their tongues, which is considered a great delicacy," he said.

Boreiko said that in this situation the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, which should issue permits for the export of birds, has never issued this kind of permits in 10 years.

"That is, no one applies to them for permits. They do not issue permits, but millions of birds pass through our customs officers. The latter simply are not interested in whether there are documents for exported birds. Veterinarians issue veterinary certificates without specifying who the true owner of these birds is," he said.

According to him, in order to stop the smuggling of wild song birds from Ukraine, it is necessary that the minister of natural resources issued an order for the ecological inspection to ensure that these birds were not allowed to be exported without separate permits.

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The survival of sea birds affected by ocean cycles

May 17, 2018, CNRS

In a general context of climate change, researchers at the Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive (CNRS/Université de Montpellier/Université Paul Valery/EPHE-PSL) and their international partners revealed the impact of ocean cycles, such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and El Niño, on the survival of the Nazca booby, a species found on the Galapagos Islands. Their research, which shows for the first time that long cycles (spanning several decades) directly affect the survival of adult populations, appears in the May edition of Ecology, and may later be expanded to other sea birds.

Several ocean cycles, such as the El Niño phenomenon, occur in the Pacific ocean and have climatic repercussions around the globe (e.g. intense rains in South America, mild winters in Canada, etc.) However El Niño (with a periodic oscillation of 2 to 7 years) is not the only natural and cyclical variation observed in the Pacific: the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is a variation in surface water temperatures which causes significant changes in sardine and anchovy population sizes due to upwelling, a process in which nutrient-rich deep ocean water rises to the surface.

In this study, researchers evaluated the impact of El Niño and the PDO on the survival of the Nazca booby, a tropical sea bird which nests in the Galapagos Islands and has a life expectancy of 15 years. This bird is a good model for the study of the effects of climate change on birds because it consumes resources (sardines, in particular) which are directly affected by climate variations. Using data from the long-term banding of the species between 1984 and 2012, the scientists discovered that survival rates among young Nazca boobies are very low during El Niño events because fish stocks – in particular sardines, the bird's favourite food – are low during these periods. Similarly, the survival of adult specimens is effected by the PDO. Researchers observed a higher mortality rate during warm phases of this cycle, despite their being conducive to the proliferation of sardines and thus easily accessible food. This unexpected correlation can be explained by greater reproduction difficulties: adults are thought to lose more energy in reproduction (less nest abandonment) to the detriment of their own survival. Inversely, during colder phases, such as the one occurring since 2008, adult survival improves because offspring mortality and nest abandonment allow them to recover more quickly.

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The Comeback Kids: five birds brought back from the brink

21 May 2018

Conservation is working: 25 bird species have been saved from the Critically Endangered category this century alone. Read five of the most inspiring stories of birds that have recovered thanks to the dedication of conservationists and communities.

People often underestimate nature’s power to bounce back. Give it half a chance, and habitats will start to regrow, populations recover. There’s no denying that humans create huge challenges – but with enough support, dedication and resources, we can also reverse them. And the minute we do, nature is there in the wings, waiting to make a comeback.

There are some particularly shining examples in the bird world. Our flagship report, State of the World’s Birds 2018, finds that 25 bird species have been rescued from the Critically Endangered category since 2000. And that’s not counting the ones that would have vanished altogether without the help of conservation projects. We’ve picked just five of the most inspiring examples.

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Wetland Bird Survey still going strong after 70 years

PUBLISHED: 15:16 21 May 2018 | UPDATED: 15:16 21 May 2018

Ross Bentley

Jointly funded by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), RSPB and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), in association with WWT, the latest WeBS report, Waterbirds in the UK 2016/17, released last week, reports on 110 waterbird populations and underlines the importance of the UK for millions of migratory waterbirds which spend the winter here or pass through on their way to their breeding grounds in the north and east.

Beginning as the National Wildfowl Counts in the winter of 1947/48, in response to apparent declines in the numbers of ducks and geese, 70 years later the scheme has expanded to include all wintering waterbirds, counted every month by 3,000 volunteers around the UK.

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Crows hold "funerals" for their dead and this very weird experiment revealed why

According to researcher Kaeli Swift of the University of Washington's Avian Conservation Laboratory, crows hold "funerals." When they see a corpse of their own kind they gather together and squawk loudly. To determine what they may be doing, Swift displayed a taxidermied dead crow to other crows. On some days though, she wore a creepy mask and wig. After multiple experiments with and without her disguise or the dead bird, the crows appeared to remember "the experience with the mask and dead crow and now connected the area with danger." From Deep Look:

And here’s what Swift said makes that really interesting: These new mobs (she encountered even weeks later) contained crows that had never seen the masked Swift with the dead crow. But they still learned to avoid the masked figure.

Learning directly from each other, rather than through individual experience, is called social learning.

“By participating in these funerals, crows can get information about new dangers without taking the risk,” Swift said.

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Rescue effort to save godwit eggs

The unseasonably wet April has caused problems for nesting birds on the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk washlands, including the area's breeding Black-tailed Godwits, the RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) have revealed.

The soggy conditions have left the Nene and Ouse Washes unusually full of water for the time of year, forcing large numbers of birds to nest away from the safety of the reserves. Conservationists have discovered clutches of Black-tailed Godwit eggs on nearby farmland. The eggs have become stuck in mud, sparking fears for the overall success of the 2018 breeding season and consequently the species' future.

However, farmers and conservationists teamed up to save a total of 32 eggs, which were collected from arable land and are now in incubators at Welney WWT, Norfolk, as part of pioneering conservation scheme Project Godwit.

Hannah Ward, RSPB Project Manager at Project Godwit, said: "The Nene and Ouse Washes in the Fens are two of just a handful of sites in the UK where Black-tailed Godwits breed.

"Historically, they nest on the washes, but the high water has forced them onto wheat fields, where eggs have been fused to the mud and the tall crops conceal potential predators. Due to the conditions these eggs have been subjected to, we are anticipating a reduction in the numbers of eggs that hatch."

Conservationists have been using a technique known as headstarting – raising young birds from eggs collected in the wild – to help boost the British godwit population. The species' numbers at the Ouse Washes are critically low, but it's hoped that headstarting, combined with the creation of extra wetland habitat, could ultimately restore the population to the counts seen in the 1970s. The Ouse and Nene Washes in the Fens are artificial wetlands, created in the 18th century, to drain the surrounding land for farming.

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Parakeets oust bats from nest holes

15/05/2018

Previously thought to be relatively ecologically harmless, invasive Ring-necked Parakeets have been seen attacking bats in a Spanish park and ejecting them from tree-hole roosts.

At the turn of the century, the largest colony of Greater Noctule bats in Europe occupied a park in Seville, Spain. However, between 2003 and 2017, the number of trees used by bats in the park fell by 81 per cent, according to a study at the Doñana Biological Station in the city. Conversely, the number of nests of Ring-necked Parakeets, an introduced species native to the Indian subcontinent and East Africa, increased by a factor of 20 over the same period.

The research team documented parakeets nesting in tree cavities previously occupied by bats. The researchers also observed the 120-g parakeets chasing the 50-g bats out of their nests. Parakeets largely attacked the bats at the entrances to tree holes in the few hours before dusk, obliging the bats to flee during daylight hours (though some bats were able to fend them off). The researchers also found 20 dead and two injured noctules under nest sites, and some were fresh enough to show beak cuts on their muscle and bones. 

In parallel, parakeet numbers increased during the study period, being very scarce until 2013, but showing a 96 per cent increase in the four years thereafter. Greater Noctule bat showed a decline of 70 per cent in the same period (and an 81 per cent fall since 2003), almost a mirror reflection of the parakeet increase. By 2017, the number of tree holes occupied by noctules had eroded down to 14 from 47 in 2013, while those occupied by parakeets had increased from 159 to 311 in the same period.

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