The World’s Birds

Forest and Bird, Issue 153, 1 August 1964, Page 20

The World’s Birds

MARIAN SORENSON

By

in The Christian Science Monitor of 14 March 1964

The world’s birds are not having an easy time. The International Council for Bird Preservation reports:

The world-wide traffic in wild birds is enormous. Yet, tragically, 75 per cent of the captured birds die before they reach their destinations.

Since Indonesia has taken over West New Guinea, Indonesian Army personnel have organised a profitable semiofficial trade in birds of paradise. These spectacularly plumed birds, formerly rigidly protected by the Netherlands, are now threatened by a growing demand for stuffed specimens in Indonesia. Collecting by zoos is menacing some species. The remaining few monkey-eating eagles in the Philippines are in danger of extinction as a wild species because of over collection by zoos.

World-wide use of pesticides, herbicides and rodenticides takes a large toll of birds every year. Israel, famous since Bible times

for its various birds of prey, has reduced many of these birds to less than 10 per cent of their original numbers by a mass poisoning of mice with the rodenticide thallium. The birds, feeding on the poisoned mice, were killed by secondary poisoning. In the meantime, the mice, with practically all the birds and other animals that normally feed on them eliminated, continue to reproduce. With the biological equilibrium destroyed, the poison must now continue to be used.

Pollution of the environment in other ways is also destroying bird life. Contamination of the seas by oil discharged from ocean ships destroys thousands of sea birds every year. The Netherlands alone reports that a minimum of 20,000 and a maximum of 50,000 such birds die each year from getting the oil on their feathers, losing their buoyancy and therefore their ability to obtain food.

The dumping of fish remains into the

sea is partly responsible for an ernormous increase of herring gulls on the German North Sea coast. The gulls, which are scavengers, are destroying other species of birds. On the other hand, Denmark reports no excess gull problem as it is forbidden in that country to throw fish offal into the sea.

Ignorance of hunters, farmers, and game raisers as to the value of birds of prey (hawks, owls, eagles) in the balance of nature is resulting in a general slaughter of these birds in some places. In Austria birds of prey have declined catastrophically from illegal shooting by pheasant raisers. The introduction of non-native animals is responsible for great bird destruction in various places. The Aleutian Canada goose is now almost extinct because of the destruction of eggs and young by introduced Arctic foxes on its Aleutian Islands breeding grounds.

In the Galapagos Islands, famous for their unique flora and fauna, introduced dogs and pigs are destroying petrels by digging out the nests which these sea birds burrow underground. Goats, which crop vegetation so close it cannot come back, are destroying whole biotic communities on some islands. When the native vegetation goes the birds and other wildlife which made it their home are also destroyed.

Every country is having trouble preserving its countryside. As the small marshes and ponds are drained, the hedgerows rooted up, the forests felled, and as urban sprawl engulfs the open spaces, land use becomes more uniform and the diverse bird life, needing specialised habitats, diminishes.

In Malaya there is a vast, wandering group of displaced or dispossessed birds resulting from the rapid removal of forest by clear cutting and burning. Continued destruction of the forests on Madagascar is menacing many native species and it is feared many will soon become extinct as their natural habitat disappears.

On the brighter side, the ICBP reports:

The International Convention for Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil which forbids discharge of oil by ships in various zones around the world now has new pro-

visions which have closed the whole of the North and Baltic Seas and a very large area of the north-east Atlantic to oil dumping.

A convention on the Antarctic has been adopted by the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain which introduces the concept of the conservation of wildlife into that area.

The State Bureau for Plant Protection in Austria now thoroughly tests new pesticides before they can be put on sale and employs a full-time ornithologist for the protection of birds from these toxic chemicals.

On the coast of Peru the problem of airplanes colliding with the 20-30 million guano birds (cormorants, boobies, etc.) has been solved by prohibiting planes from flying over large areas where these birds occur and by siting airports with great care. Since the guano is used for fertiliser and is of great value to Peru, the ICBP remarks, “This showed that when birds were of economic value it was easy to arrange matters.”

Inventories are being taken of wet lands in many European countries with an eye to creating an international complex of protected wet land areas for migrating birds.

Britain appears to be maintaining its population of golden eagles, thanks partly to a reverse bounty system which gives a reward to gamekeepers and shepherds actively protecting these birds on their land and ensuring that the young reach the free-flying stage safely.

South Africa prohibits the export of any bird, and no birds may be kept in captivity without a permit. All birds in that country are protected.

Japan protects all birds of prey.

At the same time that the world’s birds and other wildlife are being so generally decimated, it appears that there is a growing interest in nature study all over the globe. In 1961, 21,000 people visited a 677acre reserve in Scotland which is maintained solely for the protection of the only pair of ospreys breeding in Britain.