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Professor Stuart Pimm |
Human activities have caused the extinction of over 500 bird species worldwide in the past 500 years, and an additional 10 bird species could go extinct each year if appropriate conservation actions are not taken.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stuart Pimm, a conservation professor at Duke University and one of the study’s authors, stated that without human influences, the extinction rate for bird species would be approximately one species every century.
The research also indicated that conservation efforts have reduced the extinction rate to about one bird species every 3 or 4 years; however, this level of conservation remains unacceptable. Scientists warn that around 1,200 bird species could disappear in the 21st century despite conservation efforts.
A rare bird species from Brazil at risk of
extinction (Photo: dukenews.duke.edu)
T.VY
