the world’s 100 most endangered and unique birds have been ranked in a newly published study, and...
Post on 03-Jan-2016
213 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Secondary School №2 of Fedorovskiy
The World’s Most Distinctive and Endangered
BirdsCreated by Alina Khodzhaeva, 5 dTeacher Natalya Nickolaevna Chechulina
The world’s 100 most endangered and unique birds have been ranked in a newly published study, and the list includes a corpse-eater with legendary skills of decapitation, a shameless self-inflator, and the world’s heftiest parrot. Conducted by a team from Yale University, Simon Fraser University, and the Zoological Society of London, the study analyses where the 9,993 recognised species of birds in the world live; how many relatives they have (very few means better evolutionary distinctness); and how at risk they are in their environment.
We represent you 5 rarest birds in the world:
At number one is a bird called the giant ibis.
The largest member of the ibis and spoonbill family, the giant ibis stands over a metre tall, weighs 4.2kg and is the national bird of Cambodia. Despite this, fewer than 230 pairs remain.
The giant ibis stands tall at the top of the list
giant ibis
At number two is the New Caledonian owlet-nightjar.
With only two specimens and a small number of sightings, little is known about this enigmatic species, which has not been seen since 1998.
It continues to elude birdwatchers and researchers, with fewer than 50 assumed to survive.
A Californian condor flies in near the top of the listAt number three is the Californian condor, a bird with a three-metre wide wingspan that has been the subject of intensive conservation efforts.
Exactly how many Californian condors once lived remains unknown, yet by 1981 the wild population numbered just 21 birds.Despite numerous breeding efforts since that time, a chick did not hatch again in the wild until 2003.
Californian condor
At number four is the New Zealand kakapo, a flightless, nocturnal bird that is the heaviest of all parrots.It is now extinct throughout its natural
range, and survives only on three small, intensively managed islands.Dedicated conservation efforts have seen the population increase slowly to
125 individuals.
New Zealand kakapo
4
The kagu has a large crest, long legs, and a peculiar 'bark', which can be heard over a mile away.And at number five , the kagu, a bird endemic to Grand Terre, the largest island of New Caledonia.Another highly unusual, almost flightless bird, due to its startling ash-white plumage, the kagu is known locally as the 'ghost of the forest'.It is the only representative of an entire taxonomic group, resembling something between a small heron and a rail.Also on the list are 95 other unique species, such as the Forest owlet, thought to be extinct until its rediscovery in 1997, almost 113 years after the last confirmed record, the Christmas Island frigate bird, and the tooth-billed pigeon, a bird thought extinct for most of a decade, until it was recently photographed.kagu
THE PHILIPPINE'S EAGLE IS AT NUMBER EIGHT…. THE PHILIPPINE EAGLE ALSO WAS A PRIZED TROPHY FOR HUNTERS. ONCE FIREARMS BECAME WIDELY AVAILABLE IN THE PHILIPPINES AFTER WORLD WAR I, THE NUMBER OF EAGLES KILLED FOR SPORT SKY-ROCKETED.
THE WORLD'S 100 MOST DISTINCTIVE AND ENDANGERED BIRDS HAVE BEEN DETERMINED.SCIENTISTS IN THE UK AND US CHOSE THE BIRDS BASED ON THEIR RARITY, BUT ALSO HOW DISTINCTIVE THEIR APPEARANCE, BEHAVIOUR AND EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY WAS.THE LIST OF BIRDS CONTAINS SEVERAL OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST STRIKING, AS WELL AS OTHER UNUSUAL SPECIES THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION.INCLUDED ARE THE TOOTH-BILLED PIGEON, KNOWN AS THE LITTLE DODO, THE PHILIPPINE'S EAGLE AND A TYPE OF KIWI.SCIENTISTS AT THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON (ZSL), UK AND YALE UNIVERSITY IN NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, US CREATED THE LIST AS PART OF THE EDGE OF EXISTENCE PROGRAMME, WHICH SEEKS TO DOCUMENT THE MOST UNIQUELY VULNERABLE SPECIES ON THE PLANET.DETAILS OF THE EXERCISE ARE PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL CURRENT BIOLOGY.
top related