Vulture populations plummet across Africa. One of nature’s best scavengers is under serious threat in Africa, largely from poison.
According to the first analysis of African vultures, populations of seven species have fallen by 80% or more over three generations. Most of these species may qualify as critically endangered. “The rates of decline stand out as being pretty rapid,” says conservation biologist Rhys Green of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the new analysis. The situation for African vultures, he says, “is not yet irrecoverable, but it is serious.” Despite their gloomy reputation, vultures provide valuable services. Worried by reports of vulture declines across the continent, members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN’s) vulture specialist group decided to pull together all the data to figure out the long-term population trends. The main threat appears to be poison. Vultures are also killed for use in traditional medicine. Marvelous Hummingbird of Peru. 'Bubble-Pop' Bird May Be Rarest in U.S.
The Gunnison sage-grouse, a bird with an unusual “bubble pop” mating call and display, could be America’s rarest bird, according to avian experts.
The bird was only discovered 13 years ago, and yet it’s already nearly a goner. Today, fewer than 5,000 of these birds remain in the wild, and they are rapidly dwindling. PHOTOS: Animals Back From the Brink “In my view, the Gunnison sage-grouse is the most biologically endangered bird species in all of continental North America,” Cornell Lab of Ornithology director John Fitzpatrick said in a statement sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The chicken-sized bird has an amazingly unusual mating ritual. Fitzpatrick and others are paying attention to this bird now, as it’s a candidate for listing as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. “The Gunnison sage-grouse is now in imminent danger of a series of local population collapses, which — when they occur — will result in extinction of the species,” Fitzpatrick explained.
Push to prevent a last dance for the lesser prairie chicken. HEALY, KANSAS—At first, there's no sound or motion on the dance floor, just the far-off howl of a lone coyote and the rhythmic thump of a distant oil well.
So the scientists wait, keeping a close watch on a scraggly patch of grassland lit only by a crescent moon. Spatial ecologist Tom Lipp, a graduate student at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio, sets a sound recorder in a clearing. Avian ecologist Samantha Robinson, who is doing her graduate work at Kansas State University (KSU), Manhattan, zips herself into a snug tent-style blind with a thermos of coffee and a notebook. The coffee is cold by the time the first gobbles ripple through the predawn darkness and the dancers strut in. Soon, nearly a dozen male lesser prairie chickens are cackling, stamping, and showing off fluffy yellow eye combs and the bright red air sacs that balloon from their necks. “That's the scary and exciting part about doing this work right now,” says ecologist Andrew Gregory of BGSU. California Condor in the Grand Canyon. Photographs of Rare Birds. In this collection of photos you’ll see the rarest birds in the world.
Pictures were taken by photographers who traveled to the most remote places on earth and spent many hours behind the lens, trying to find his victim for photo. All of them have taken their rightful place in international competition. During the competition was sent more than 566 photographs the most rare birds in the world. 1. 39 endangered African vultures killed by poison. List of Endangered Bird Species. Thaumatibis gigantea Conservation Attention: Limited Number one on the EDGE birds list, this huge ibis is critically endangered with a population of just over 200 adults.
Aegotheles savesi None With only two known specimens and a small number of sightings, little is known about this enigmatic species. Gymnogyps californianus Active This critically endangered condor has a huge wingspan of almost three metres. Strigops habroptila Found only in New Zealand, this charismatic, flightless parrot is slowly being brought back from the edge of extinction. Rhynochetos jubatus This ash-white bird is mainly found in the dense, humid forests of New Caledonia and is known locally as the ‘ghost of the forest’. Houbaropsis bengalensis The Bengal Florican is one of the most threatened bustards in the world. Heteroglaux blewitti This little owlet was thought to be extinct, until its rediscovery in 1997, almost 113 years after the last confirmed record. Pithecophaga jefferyi Fregata andrewsi Carpococcyx viridis.