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Climate Change Impacting Galapagos Floreana Mockingbird
19 May 2008
Adapted from BirdLife/IUCN Press Release
According to the 2008 “Red List for Birds” report, approximately one in eight bird species, specifically 1,226 of roughly 10,000 bird species, are at risk of extinction. The cause for this endangerment is extreme weather changes and long droughts, which put stress on natural habitats.
“This latest update of the IUCN Red List shows that birds are under enormous pressure from climate change,” says Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme. “The IUCN Red List is the global standard when it comes to measuring species loss so we urge governments to take the information contained in it seriously and do their level best to protect the world’s birds.”
A few alarming changes include: extinctions historically observed primarily on islands were rising also on continents, the rise in threat category of the Durasian curlew and Dartford warbler, both previously categorized as “Least Threatened,”
In the Galápagos Islands, Floreana Mockingbird Nesomimus trifasciatus is confined to two islets off Floreana. Its population has declined from an estimated maximum of 150 individuals in 1966 to fewer than 60, and is now at risk from extreme weather events. As a result it has been uplisted to Critically Endangered.
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