According to a new study, we have caused the extinction of 20% of all bird species on Earth in the past 50.000 years.
The birds are facing massive extinction, and the fault lies with humans. According to a new study by Tel Aviv University, we have caused the extinction of 20% of all avian biodiversity over the past 50.000 years.
There are very few living beings, animals or plants, whose existence has not been impacted in some way by the human presence: since the beginning, man has modeled and given new shape to the natural environment around him to adapt it to his needs. and to its own needs, damaging (and in some cases destroying) the habitat of many animal species that have faced extinction.
Birds have been among the animals most affected by the hand of man: the new 'habitats' created by humanity - such as cities, farms, cultivated fields - do not meet the minimum requirements to allow birds adequate living conditions. Furthermore, pollution and global warming pose a new threat to habitat loss, posing new and arduous survival challenges for birds. These include changes in habitat distribution, changes in migratory phenomena and in food supply.
Tel Aviv University researchers have tried to understand the quantitative dimensions of the bird extinction phenomenon, and to evaluate the relevance of factors that played a role in these extinctions. extinct avian species). It turned out that most of the extinct species shared several characteristics: they were large birds, which lived on the islands and could not fly.
For the first time, we have collected quantitative data on the number and characteristics of extinct bird species around the world - he explains Shai Meiri, among the authors of the study. - Species that have become extinct in the last three hundred years are relatively well documented, while previous species are known from literary traces and indirect sources.
The researchers tracked the geographic spread, the ability to fly and the body size of each extinct species; subsequently they hypothesized models on the populations of extinct birds based on the still existing populations. With this technique they were able to locate 469 bird species that have become extinct in the last 50.000 years, but they believe the number is actually much higher.
The extinction did not happen in a 'random' way, but was caused by humans, who have hunted birds, or who have brought non-endemic animals to the islands that have fed on birds' eggs or their young. About 90% of the now extinct birds lived on the islands: when humans arrived, they started hunting them (especially the large ones, which provided large quantities of food). Most of them did not have the ability to fly and thus to escape their hunters (the number of flightless birds that have become extinct is double that of what exists today).
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Fonte: Biogeography
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