WASHINGTON -- At slightest 112 North American vertebrate taxon person mislaid much than fractional their populations successful the past 50 years, according to a caller study published Thursday.
Among the birds showing the steepest declines are Allen’s hummingbirds, Florida scrub jays, golden-cheeked warblers, tricolored blackbirds and yellow-billed magpies.
“These are the precise existent consequences if we are incapable to conserve and support the important habitats that birds need,” said survey co-author Mike Brasher, a elder idiosyncratic astatine the nonprofit Ducks Unlimited.
For respective decades, waterfowl stood retired arsenic a conservation agleam spot with duck populations increasing nationwide adjacent arsenic galore different groups of birds declined successful the U.S. But that inclination has reversed, the caller information shows.
The full fig of dabbling and diving ducks is down astir 30% from 2017, said Brasher. Loss of grasslands situation and a prolonged drought affecting the wetlands of the Great Plains’ prairie pothole portion person taken a toll. Among each waterfowl, numbers are down 20% since 2014, the study found.
The latest study is simply a collaboration betwixt respective groups including Cornell University, Ducks Unlimited, American Bird Conservancy, National Audubon Society and the American Ornithological Society.
The enactment draws connected survey information from the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and national projects specified arsenic Cornell's eBird. There are immoderate 2,000 vertebrate taxon successful North America. A 3rd of the taxon examined are rated arsenic precocious oregon mean interest for conservation owed to declining numbers, situation nonaccomplishment oregon different threats.
These birds “need urgent conservation attention,” said Amanda Rodewald, a survey co-author from Cornell, adding that vertebrate survey trends besides uncover the wellness of their habitats.
The study focuses connected birds that indispensable breed and provender successful circumstantial habitats specified arsenic forests, grasslands and coastal regions. Grassland birds including the Bobolink are astir astatine risk.
“For each taxon that we’re successful information of losing, it’s similar pulling an idiosyncratic thread retired of the analyzable tapestry of life,” said Georgetown University biologist Peter Marra, who was not progressive successful the caller report.
Marra pointed to cardinal past conservation successes successful the U.S. – specified arsenic the comebacks of bald eagles, egrets and osprey.
“We cognize that we tin crook the curve backmost with targeted conservation plans. But we can’t conscionable adjacent our eyes and hope," helium said.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives enactment from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely liable for each content.
English (CA) · 
English (US) · 
Spanish (MX) ·