Surfbirds News: BirdLife International Archives
1,221 and counting: More birds than ever face extinction
The latest evaluation of the world’s birds has revealed that more species than ever are threatened with extinction, and that additional conservation action is critical to reversing current declines.
BirdLife International’s annual Red List update ??? which takes into account population size, population trends and range size for all 10,000 bird species worldwide - states that 1,221 species are considered threatened with extinction and are to be listed as such on the 2007 IUCN Red List.
Waved Albatross ?? Lee Dingain
The latest update also shows an additional 812 bird species are now considered Near Threatened, adding up to a total of 2,033 species that are urgent priorities for conservation action.
The overall conservation status of the world’s birds has deteriorated steadily since 1988, when they were first comprehensively assessed. Now, more than a fifth (22%) of the planet’s birds is at increased risk of extinction.
The 2007 update has highlighted the deteriorating status of the world’s vultures: five more species have been ‘uplisted’ to higher categories of concern as a result of numerous threats. These include habitat loss, conversion and degradation (which remains the principal threat to all the world’s birds, impacting on 86% of Globally Threatened species), fewer feeding opportunities (as a result of declining wild ungulate populations on which to scavenge) and poisoning by the veterinary drug diclofenac ??? a factor behind rapid population declines in vultures across Asia in recent years. |
