Warming World Threatens Migratory Birds
Pastor Dale Morgan
May 13, 12:58 PM EDT
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Warming World Threatens Migratory Birds*
By ARTHUR MAX
Associated Press Writer
BONN, Germany (AP) -- Disoriented by erratic weather, birds are changing
migration habits and routes to adjust to warmer winters, disappearing
feeding grounds and shrinking wetlands, a migration expert says.
Failure to adapt risks extinction. Birds face starvation when they
arrive too early or too late to find their normal diet of insects,
plankton or fish. In the north, some birds have stopped migrating
altogether, leaving them at risk when the next cold winter strikes.
"Species that adapted to changes over millennia are now being asked to
make those adaptations extremely quickly because of the swift rise in
temperatures," said Robert Hepworth, executive secretary of the
Convention on Migratory Species, a treaty under the auspices of the U.N.
Environment Program.
"We don't know how many will survive. We will lose species," he said in
an interview Saturday on the sidelines of an international climate
change conference in Bonn, Germany.
This weekend, bird watchers and conservationists in dozens of countries
marked World Migratory Bird Day with concerts, films and children's
drawing contests to attract attention to the rising threat of global
warming.
Climate change adds another threat to bird life already under pressure
from human intrusions like coastline development.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a body of some 2,500
scientists - has warned in a series of reports this year that high
emissions of greenhouse gases are likely to raise the Earth's average
temperatures by at least 3.6 degrees.
The warming is predicted to drive up to 30 percent of known animal
species to extinction, and migrating birds are especially vulnerable.
Climate change can strike at each stage of their annual trek, from
breeding ground to rest stops to their final destination.
Studies cited by the convention say arctic permafrost and tundra where
many species breed are melting. Even moderate rises in sea levels can
swamp wetlands where birds stop to feed. Deserts are expanding,
lengthening the distance between rests.
Hepworth recalls watching great V-formations of Bewick's swans arriving
in his native Britain from northern Russia for the summer. Fewer are
seen now.
The extraordinary travels of the red knot are another example. The
medium-sized shore bird breeds in Siberia and migrates to southern
Africa, shedding half its body weight under the strain of a flight that
reaches survival limits. The expansion of the north Africa deserts could
push them over the edge.
The convention's scientific council says 84 percent of the 235 species
listed its annexes could be affected by changes in water availability,
mismatched foods supplies, more frequent storms and competition with
alien species intruding into their habitat.
The convention came into force in 1983 and is signed by 101 countries
that pledged to help preserve the habitat of wild animals.