WANDERING ALBATROSS
Photo: Graham Robertson
A Guardian newspaper story by Calla Wahlquist reports that populations of threatened bird species in Australia halved in the past 30 years, according to a new national Threatened Bird Index. The index is part of a large data consolidation undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, along with Queensland University and Birdlife Australia. Over 180,000 surveys from 35 monitoring programs on 43 species that where listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered found an average population decline of 52% between 1985 and 2015. Populations of migratory shorebird species dropped by an average of 70% over the same period. Last month, the Living Planet Index reported a 60% decline in global animal populations since 1960. The alarm bells continue to ring. Are we deaf?
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder
No comments:
Post a Comment