Migratory bird once in Croatia is confirmed extinct

Slender-billed curlew

The extinction of the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), a migratory bird which was last seen in Morocco in 1995, has been confirmed.

Scientists have published an analysis confirming the extinction of the bird that was bred in western Siberia and wintered along the Mediterranean.

This marks the first known extinction of a bird species from continental Europe, North Africa, and western Asia.

The slender-billed curlew once visited Croatia, and the newly renovated Natural History Museum in Zagreb preserves a specimen of the species, Udruga Biom has said.

The Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently includes 164 bird species that have gone extinct since 1500.

This is out of the 11,000 species assessed by BirdLife International, a global authority on birds. The Red List publication was a collaboration between the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), BirdLife International, Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, and the British Natural History Museum.

Slender-billed curlew

Nicola Crockford, RSPB’s Principal Policy Officer, said:

“This is one of the most truly devastating conservation news stories of the past century and strikes at the heart of why the RSPB-BirdLife partnership exists – to prevent extinctions. This is the first recorded extinction of a bird from continental Europe, North Africa, and western Asia worldwide, and it has happened within our lifetimes. How can we expect countries outside Europe to protect their species when our far wealthier nations have failed to do so?”

News of its extinction follows a recent announcement that 16 other migratory curlew species have been reclassified to higher risk categories on the IUCN Red List due to population declines.

The exact causes of the slender-billed curlew’s decline may never be fully understood.

However, likely factors include extensive drainage of raised bogs in its breeding areas for agriculture, loss of coastal wetlands in its wintering grounds, and hunting, particularly of its already reduced and fragmented populations.

Other potential contributors could include pollution, disease, predation, and climate change, though the extent of these impacts remains uncertain.