Migratory, Resident Shorebird Numbers Collapsing Down Under - Counts Fall 73%, 81% From 1983 - 2006

[hatrack]

One of the world's great wildlife spectacles is under way across Australia: as many as two million migratory shorebirds of 36 species are gathering around Broome before an amazing 10,000-kilometre annual flight to their northern hemisphere breeding grounds. But an alarming new study has revealed that both these migrants and Australia's one million resident shorebirds have suffered a massive collapse in numbers over the past 25 years.

A large scale aerial survey study covering the eastern third of the continent by researchers at the University of New South Wales has identified that migratory shorebirds populations there plunged by 73% between 1983 and 2006, while Australia's 15 species of resident shorebirds - such as avocets and stilts - have declined by 81%. The study is published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation.

It is the first long-term analysis of shorebird populations and health at an almost a continental scale and reveals a disturbing trend of serious long-term decline.

"This is a truly alarming result: in effect, three-quarters of eastern Australia's millions of resident and migratory shorebirds have disappeared in just one generation," says an author of the report, Professor Richard Kingsford.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Shorebird_Numbers_Crash_Survey_Alarm_999.html

[Teaser]

1. The trend looks very good

Soon we will have completely eliminated our shorebird enemies.

They thought they could defeat us. They were wrong.

Dead wrong.