Slender-billed Curlew may be extinct, marking the disappearance of a third bird species from the Western Palaearctic

24 Nov 2024, 18:50 by Bob Yirka

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Country-level counts of specimens (yellow scale) and supported records (blue scale) of Slender-billed Curlew. The color intervals on both axes of the bi-plot indicate counts of 0, 2–5, 6–10, >10 so that strength of yellow increases as the number of specimens increases, and strength of blue increases as number of records increases. High numbers of both are indicated by dark blue. Dotted line indicates the widest possible breeding area by Buchanan et al. (2018), and black dot indicates area of breeding identified by Ushakov (1912). Credit: Ibis (2024). DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13368

A small team of conservationists, biodiversity specialists and bird researchers has found that it is likely a third species of bird has gone extinct in the Western Palaearctic—a large area of land spanning parts of North Africa all the way up to polar regions.

In their paper published in the journal Ibis, the group notes that the extinction would also represent the first bird species from Mainland Europe, West Asia and North Africa to go extinct.

Prior research has shown that almost all bird extinctions happen to birds that live on islands—they tend to happen due to the introduction of a predator. Because of that, bird scientists find it surprising when a species native to land, especially to a very large area, disappears. But that appears to be the case with the Slender-billed Curlew.

To date, the IUCN Red List describes 164 birds as having gone extinct in the modern age—and virtually all of them have come to that end due to human activities. The Slender-billed Curlew is still listed as endangered, but that is expected to change soon as more evidence is processed.

Posterior probability density curve after the last known specimen (skin of known whereabouts) in 1983 indicating the likelihood that Slender-billed Curlew is extant, based on patterns of records. Horizontal line indicates P = 0.05. Insert is an adult male Slender-billed Curlew photographed in February 1995 at Merja Zerga, Morocco, by Chris Gomersall. This is the last known bird documented in a photograph in which the identification features of Corso et al. (2014) can be seen. Credit: Ibis (2024). DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13368

The Slender-billed Curlew once bred in bogs in Siberia during the short summers there. As it grew cold, most of the birds would fly to wetlands on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea—some went further, to the tropics or to Australia. But problems for them arose at both ends of their migration route.

Global warming has led to temperature increases in Siberia, which has led to bogs being drained for farming. Places to live around the Mediterranean became scarce, even as pollution problems increased. The result was a slow drop in numbers. Sightings in places like Morocco, which once hosted some of the largest numbers of birds, became few and far between. The last known occurred in 1995.

Since that time, several efforts have been made to find evidence of the birds in both Siberia and their other haunts. No evidence has been found of nests, feathers, eggs, or the birds themselves. The researchers of this new effort have outlined the efforts to find the birds and their hopes that some evidence will arise in a place where the birds have never been seen before. They also suggest the disappearance of the Slender-billed Curlew likely portends the loss of many more species in the coming years.

More information: Graeme M. Buchanan et al, Global extinction of Slender‐billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), Ibis (2024). DOI: 10.1111/ibi.13368