For decades, the slender-billed curlew, a grayish-brown migratory wetland bird with a long, arched bill, has evaded detection, prompting speculation about whether the species is still out there. Now, a new study has confirmed that the species is indeed most likely extinct.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaking personally it\u2019s a source of deep sadness,\u201d Geoff Hilton, conservation scientist at U.K.-based charity Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, who wasn\u2019t involved in the study, told Mongabay by email. \u201cI spent several years working on ways to bring this species back from the brink \u2026 I\u2019m gutted!\u201d<\/p>\n
While details of the slender-billed curlew\u2019s (Numenius tenuirostris) exact population size and breeding sites have remained hazy, the species is known to have historically bred in Central Asia and migrated to Europe and North Africa. However, the bird has likely been scarce since the mid-20th century, said Graeme Buchanan, study lead author and conservation scientist with U.K-based NGO Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).<\/p>\n
The species was last photographed in 1995 at Merga Zerga on Morocco\u2019s Atlantic coast. Since then, experts have speculated the bird was extinct, although the IUCN Red List still classifies it as critically endangered, based on a 2018 assessment<\/p>\n
There was a need for a formal, quantitative assessment of the species\u2019 status to prevent withdrawing conservation support too soon or too late, Buchanan told Mongabay.<\/p>\n
So, following the IUCN\u2019s framework, Buchanan and his colleagues reviewed all known sightings of the species maintained by the RSPB in a database, estimated impacts of various threats to the bird, and examined past surveys. They concluded there\u2019s a roughly 96% probability the species is now extinct, and that it likely happened in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with the authors\u2019 approach and so unfortunately I must agree with their conclusions,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cOf course, the authors do not say that the species is definitely extinct, just that it is extremely likely to be extinct.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a wake-up call the conservation sector \u201cprobably didn\u2019t need,\u201d Hilton added. \u201cWe arguably spent too much time watching the bird\u2019s decline and not enough actually trying to fix things,\u201d he said. \u201cAlthough that\u2019s easy to say: it\u2019s not clear what really we could have done that would have made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent IUCN update notes that various other migratory shorebirds are now more threatened with extinction than before.<\/p>\n
As for the slender-billed curlew, the study\u2019s authors recommend updating the species\u2019 IUCN status to extinct. Still, they hold out a slim hope someone might spot one of the birds again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone spots it now, get a photographic evidence,\u201d Buchanan said. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to have no uncertainty as to whether or not this is the species. Second, call us. We\u2019d be delighted to be proven wrong and we could try to reinitiate conservation efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n