Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science have released new findings that reveal a large number of bird species have gone extinct primarily because of humans, TAU said in a press release.
The disappearance of about 10%-20% of all avian species has occurred in the last 20,000- 50,000 years, according to the research, published in the Journal of Biogeography.The study, led by Prof. Shai Meiri of the School of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at TAU, and Amir Fromm of the Weizmann Institute, noted that the vast majority of the extinct species shared several similarities: they were large, they lived on islands, and many of them were flightless.These features, the researchers said, made them easily accessible to humans and other animal pursuers who hunted the birds for food, leading to the extinction of 469 avian species. The scientists expressed hope that their findings will prevent further bird extinction.
"Our study indicates that before the major extinction event of the past millennia, many more large, even giant, as well as flightless avian lived on our globe, and the diversity of birds living on islands was much greater than today," Meiri said. "We hope that our findings can serve as warning signals regarding bird species currently threatened with extinction, and it is therefore important to check whether they have similar features. It must be noted, however, that conditions have changed considerably, and today the main cause for extinction of species by humans is not hunting but rather the destruction of natural habitats." Israel sees huge influxes of feathered guests flying into the country annually, as massive flocks of birds return to the shores of Eilat following migration patterns in mid-April. But the number of birds stopping in Eilat, Israel's southernmost tip, has declined sharply over the last eight years, according to data complied by the International Birding and Research Center Eilat, alarming experts that extinction is increasing.
Earlier this month, Israel's Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg announced the country would extend wildlife protections to two types of birds, banning the hunting of turtle doves for three years and banning the hunting of quail altogether, as experts hope to keep these birds' populations from declining further.