Who’s Next? Follow The Money.

A new study has found that humans have wiped out around 1,400 bird species - twice as many as previously thought, with major implications for the ongoing biodiversity crisis. 

Many of the world's islands were previously untouched paradises, but the arrival of people to places like Hawaii, Tonga and the Azores led, over time, to far-reaching impacts including deforestation, overhunting and the introduction of invasive species. Consequently, bird species were wiped out. 

While the demise of many birds since the 1500s has been recorded, our knowledge of the fate of species before this relies on fossils, and these records are limited because birds' lightweight bones disintegrate over time; this conceals the true extent of global extinctions. 

Researchers now believe 1,430 bird species, almost 12 per cent, have died out over modern human history, since the Late Pleistocene around 130,000 years ago, with the vast majority of them becoming extinct directly or indirectly due to human activity. 

The study, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and published in Nature Communications, used statistical modelling to estimate the undiscovered bird extinctions. 

Lead author Dr Rob Cooke, an ecological modeller at UKCEH, - "Our study demonstrates there has been a far higher human impact on avian diversity than previously recognised. Humans have rapidly devastated bird populations via habitat loss, overexploitation and the introduction of rats, pigs, cats and dogs that raided nests of birds and competed with them for food. We show that many species became extinct before written records and left no trace, lost from history." 

Dr Søren Faurby of the University of Gothenburg, a co-author of the study, adds: "These historic extinctions have major implications for the current biodiversity crisis. "The world may not only have lost many fascinating birds but also their varied ecological roles, which are likely to have included key functions such as seed dispersal and pollination. This will have had cascading harmful effects on ecosystems so, in addition to bird extinctions, we will have lost a lot of plants and animals that depended on these species for survival." 

Observations and fossils show 640 bird species have been driven extinct since the Late Pleistocene period, 90 per cent of these on islands inhabited by people. These range from the iconic Dodo of Mauritius to the Great Auk of the North Atlantic to the lesser-known Saint Helena Giant Hoopoe. 

Dodo -a painting of the late 1620s by Roelant Savery.  

 

Great Auk - Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

But the researchers estimated there have been further 790 unknown extinctions, meaning a total of 1,430 lost species. 

The scientists say their study has uncovered the largest human-driven vertebrate extinction event in history, during the 14th century, estimating that 570 bird species were lost after people first arrived in the Eastern Pacific, including Hawaii and the Cook Islands, nearly 100 times the natural extinction rate. 

They believe there was also a major extinction event in the ninth century BC, primarily driven by the arrival of people to the Western Pacific, including Fiji and the Mariana Islands, as well as the Canary Islands, and highlight the ongoing extinction event, which started in the mid-18th century. Since then, in addition to an increase in deforestation and spread of invasive species, birds have faced the additional human-driven threats of intensive agriculture, pollution and leisure activities.  

Previous research by the authors suggests we are at risk of losing up to 700 additional bird species in the next few hundred years, which would be an unprecedented human-driven decimation of species. But Dr Cooke points out: "Whether or not further bird species will go extinct is up to us. Recent conservation has saved some species and we must now increase efforts to protect birds, with habitat restoration led by local communities." 

The study team based their modelled estimates on known extinctions and the extent of relevant research effort in regions compared to New Zealand. The country is the only place in the world where the pre-human bird fauna is believed to be completely known, with well-preserved remains of all birds there. The fewer studies in a region, the more incomplete the fossil record is expected to be, and the greater the number of estimated undiscovered extinctions. 

Journal Reference: Rob Cooke, Ferran Sayol, Tobias Andermann, Tim M. Blackburn, Manuel J. Steinbauer, Alexandre Antonelli, Søren Faurby. Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves. Nature Communications, 2023.

Saint Helena Giant Hoopoe by Michael Brett-Surman

“The first evidence of the Saint Helena Giant Hoopoe was discovered in 1963 by the British zoologist Philip Ashmole in the Dry Gut sediments east of Saint Helena. Ashmole found a left humerus, but assumed it to be of a Common Hoopoe, due to remarkable similarities to known hoopoe species. However, further research in 1975 by American palaeontologist Storrs L. Olson unearthed more remains, including shoulder parts, skull elements, and the left femur, which prompted a re-examination of the older evidence and the nomination of a new species. The British Museum of Natural History, as of 1977, was in possession of at least one femur from a Saint Helena hoopoe, slightly larger than Olson described in the nominal paper.” 

When current day leaders and politicians are caught out following a crisis, a misdemeanour or a disaster they inevitably repeat the shop-worn phrase “lessons will be learnt”. Sad to say that history teaches us  that lessons are rarely if ever learned and that as a society we just commit the same mistakes over and over again, like lemmings over a cliff.  Given the greed and corruption of modern times it is impossible to see how we can escape further extinctions, including in time, homo sapiens. 

Do enough people care?  No. Follow the money.

Linking at weekend to Eileen's Saturday