Deakin avian expert warns migratory birds are flying to Australia on just a wing and a prayer
Submitted by Chickowee on 26 Sep 2014.
Millions of migratory birds that fly tens of thousands of kilometres between their homes in Australia and Siberia are facing annihilation as development destroys the vital feeding grounds they rely on during their epic journeys, a Deakin University avian expert has warned.
Director of Deakin's Centre for Integrative Ecology Professor Marcel Klaassen has joined a growing chorus of leading scientists alarmed by a sudden and dramatic drop in the number of shorebirds finally arriving in Australia after their legendary flights across the globe.
"The rate of decline among some of these bird species is such a dramatic drop in numbers as to be truly depressing,'' Professor Klaassen said. "For instance, the rate of decline in numbers of one of these, the Curlew sandpiper, is a staggering 10 per cent per year which means they face extinction within a decade,'' he warned.
