The Sidamo lark soon to be extinct
15 April, 2009 | By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The Sidamo lark could soon be the first bird on mainland Africa to
die out since modern records began.
The birds inhabit a very small pocket of grassland within the Liben Plain
of southern Ethiopia.
"This imminent extinction reflects a wider social and political crisis that
is repeated throughout Africa," said zoologist Claire Spottiswoode of the
University of Cambridge.
She led a survey of the bird's habitat and published her findings in the
journal Animal Conservation.
Ancestral link
The Sidamo lark ( Heteromirafra sidamoensis ) is an enigmatic species,
and one of the most ancient types of lark known anywhere.
Discovered by scientists in 1968, the bird was only seen once in the
following 25 years.
"If we lose this species then we lose an important ancestral link in the
evolution of the entire radiation of lark species," said Dr Spottiswoode.
“ Much of the remaining grassland is too degraded for the species to
exist in it ”
Claire Spottiswoode Cambridge University
This area of highland savannah used to be maintained by fire and by the
grazing of large herbivores, such as elephants, antelopes and gazelles.
Borana pastoralists also traditionally walked their cattle across the plain
as they migrated between different wet and dry season grasslands.
For millennia, both the wild animals and pastoralists kept the grasslands
in good condition.
This habitat is now being destroyed.
Wild animals are too few to stop shrubs regrowing, while intensively
reared livestock and agriculture are increasingly damaging the grasslands.
Unique habitat
Dr Spottiswoode surveyed the Liben Plain with colleagues from the
Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, Birdlife International and
the University of East Anglia.
They found that the Sidamo lark lives within a single patch of grassland
of just 35 square kilometres.
That compares to a range of 760 square kilometres estimated by Birdlife
International just last year, though that was a rough guess based on the
best information available at the time.
"The Liben Plain has recently much diminished in size owing to bush
encroachment and crop planting. Much of the remaining grassland is too
degraded for the species to exist in it," said Dr Spottiswoode.
Worse, the survey revealed that a maximum of 358 Sidamo Larks
remain.
More likely, between 90 and 250 of the birds survive. "Even the lower
value might be optimistic," wrote the authors of the study.
They have recommended to the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) that it upgrades to the bird's status to "critically
endangered".
Action needed
"The roots of the problem are incredibly difficult to address," says Dr
Spottiswoode.
For example, the conflict in neighbouring Somalia means that armed
nomads often cross the border and move into the region to graze their
cattle.
Increasing droughts and climate change also threaten the bird's habitat.
"But there are urgent short-term measures which might make all the
difference to the bird surviving the next few years," said Dr
Spottiswoode.
One step would be to create small plots in which cattle could graze.
That would stop damage to the grassland and maintain the grass cover
required by breeding females.
Shrubs should also be removed, while a limit should be placed on crops
expanding further into the bird's range.
Saving the bird in the long term will require the return of the nomadic
Borana pastoralists, said Dr Spottiswoode.
They could better manage the grasslands that make up the bird's unique
habitat.
"Mitigation measures would benefit both. Perhaps a rare instance of
human and conservation interests coinciding," she added.
Under threat
Southern Ethiopia has a suite of bird
species that occur nowhere else in
the world, many of them threatened.
The IUCN lists the white-tailed
swallow as "vulnerable", while
another endangered endemic species
is the Ethiopian bush-crow, which
occurs in a small area of savannah
about 100 kilometres to the west of
the Sidamo lark's territory.
It lives in complex and fascinating
social groups, and its closest relatives
live far away in the deserts of central
Asia.
Like the Sidamo lark, the bush-crow has been severely impacted by
bush encroachment and a shift from pastoralism to crop-planting, and
has recently been given "endangered" status by the IUCN.
Story from BBC NEWS:
15 April, 2009 | By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The Sidamo lark could soon be the first bird on mainland Africa to
die out since modern records began.
- A survey has found that just a
few hundred of the larks
survive in Ethiopia. Unless
action is taken to save it, the
bird will disappear.
While it may be the first
recorded bird extinction on
the continent, it will not be
the last, warn
conservationists.
The birds inhabit a very small pocket of grassland within the Liben Plain
of southern Ethiopia.
"This imminent extinction reflects a wider social and political crisis that
is repeated throughout Africa," said zoologist Claire Spottiswoode of the
University of Cambridge.
She led a survey of the bird's habitat and published her findings in the
journal Animal Conservation.
Ancestral link
The Sidamo lark ( Heteromirafra sidamoensis ) is an enigmatic species,
and one of the most ancient types of lark known anywhere.
Discovered by scientists in 1968, the bird was only seen once in the
following 25 years.
"If we lose this species then we lose an important ancestral link in the
evolution of the entire radiation of lark species," said Dr Spottiswoode.
“ Much of the remaining grassland is too degraded for the species to
exist in it ”
Claire Spottiswoode Cambridge University
This area of highland savannah used to be maintained by fire and by the
grazing of large herbivores, such as elephants, antelopes and gazelles.
Borana pastoralists also traditionally walked their cattle across the plain
as they migrated between different wet and dry season grasslands.
For millennia, both the wild animals and pastoralists kept the grasslands
in good condition.
This habitat is now being destroyed.
Wild animals are too few to stop shrubs regrowing, while intensively
reared livestock and agriculture are increasingly damaging the grasslands.
Unique habitat
Dr Spottiswoode surveyed the Liben Plain with colleagues from the
Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, Birdlife International and
the University of East Anglia.
They found that the Sidamo lark lives within a single patch of grassland
of just 35 square kilometres.
That compares to a range of 760 square kilometres estimated by Birdlife
International just last year, though that was a rough guess based on the
best information available at the time.
"The Liben Plain has recently much diminished in size owing to bush
encroachment and crop planting. Much of the remaining grassland is too
degraded for the species to exist in it," said Dr Spottiswoode.
Worse, the survey revealed that a maximum of 358 Sidamo Larks
remain.
More likely, between 90 and 250 of the birds survive. "Even the lower
value might be optimistic," wrote the authors of the study.
They have recommended to the International Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN) that it upgrades to the bird's status to "critically
endangered".
Action needed
"The roots of the problem are incredibly difficult to address," says Dr
Spottiswoode.
For example, the conflict in neighbouring Somalia means that armed
nomads often cross the border and move into the region to graze their
cattle.
Increasing droughts and climate change also threaten the bird's habitat.
"But there are urgent short-term measures which might make all the
difference to the bird surviving the next few years," said Dr
Spottiswoode.
One step would be to create small plots in which cattle could graze.
That would stop damage to the grassland and maintain the grass cover
required by breeding females.
Shrubs should also be removed, while a limit should be placed on crops
expanding further into the bird's range.
Saving the bird in the long term will require the return of the nomadic
Borana pastoralists, said Dr Spottiswoode.
They could better manage the grasslands that make up the bird's unique
habitat.
"Mitigation measures would benefit both. Perhaps a rare instance of
human and conservation interests coinciding," she added.
Under threat
Southern Ethiopia has a suite of bird
species that occur nowhere else in
the world, many of them threatened.
The IUCN lists the white-tailed
swallow as "vulnerable", while
another endangered endemic species
is the Ethiopian bush-crow, which
occurs in a small area of savannah
about 100 kilometres to the west of
the Sidamo lark's territory.
It lives in complex and fascinating
social groups, and its closest relatives
live far away in the deserts of central
Asia.
Like the Sidamo lark, the bush-crow has been severely impacted by
bush encroachment and a shift from pastoralism to crop-planting, and
has recently been given "endangered" status by the IUCN.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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| The Sidamo lark inhabits a tiny area of grassland in Southern Ethiopia |