“Never has a continental species of bird been declared extinct in the Western Palearctic since naturalist monitoring began. An extremely worrying first,” warned the LPO on Tuesday, one of the most important French associations dedicated to the protection of nature, which commented in a press release on this study, published in the ornithology magazine Ibis (New window).
The Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) was a bird with light plumage and a long, thin, curved bill. Once widespread in the wetlands of Europe and Central Asia, this highly migratory bird nested in Siberia and Finland before wintering on the Mediterranean coasts.
According to the study, the most recent indisputable observation dates back to 1995 in Morocco, almost 30 years ago.
In France, the last report was made by the LPO on February 15, 1968 in Aiguillon Bay (Vendée), notes the French league which notes that despite intensive searches to locate possible survivors, the scientific study estimates at “96% the probability that the species is now extinct”.
“The population declined rapidly in the 20th century due to habitat loss caused by intensive agriculture and drainage of wetlands. Its American cousin, the Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis), has not been seen since 1987,” notes the same source.
Of the 9 species of curlew described in the world, two have therefore ceased to exist in less than 40 years, according to the LPO which recalls that France had suspended in 2020 the hunting of the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata), whose European numbers have fallen by almost half since 1980.
For the association, the confirmation of the disappearance of the Slender-billed Curlew constitutes “the first official extinction of a continental bird species in the Western Palearctic zone, which covers Europe, North Africa and part of of Asia”.
“This fact is particularly worrying because if more than 150 species of birds (out of approximately 11,000) have disappeared from the planet since 1500 according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), the majority concerned endemic birds weakened by insularity such as the Canary Oystercatcher (Haematopus meadewaldoi) and the infamous Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) or species decimated by hunting such as the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) and the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius),” concludes the French bird protection league.
