On November 18, 2024, researchers announced that the Slender-Billed Curlew was declared extinct, marking the loss of a migratory shorebird that once bred in western Siberia and wintered around the Mediterranean. The last confirmed sighting of the curlew occurred in north Morocco in 1995. When the curlew stopped returning to its primary wintering location in Merja Zerga, Morocco, ornithologists worked very hard, according to Alex Bond, Senior Curator in Charge of Birds at the Natural History Museum.

“There was quite a lot of effort put in to try to locate them on breeding grounds. Several expeditions and hundreds of thousands of square kilometres were searched. And all this has turned up, unfortunately, is nothing.” Bond was quoted by the BirdLife statement. The curlew is the very first documented bird extinction in continental North Africa, Europe, and West Asia, according to the statement.

Causes of Extinction

There is uncertainty about the causes of the extinction. However, a study published by the Natural History Museum, BirdLife International, RSPB, and Naturalis Biodiversity Centre proposed several potential pressures, such as “extensive drainage of their raised bog breeding grounds for agricultural use, the loss of coastal wetlands used for winter feeding, and hunting, especially latterly, of an already reduced, fragmented, and declining population.”

BirdLife International said in a statement, “There could have been impacts from pollution, disease, predation, and climate change, but the scale of these impacts is unknown.”

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Broader Implications for Migratory Birds

The announcement that the Slender-Billed Curlew was declared extinct coincides with the reclassification of 16 additional migratory shorebird species to higher threat levels on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Out of nearly 11,000 species whose conservation status has been evaluated by BirdLife International, 164 birds have been extinct on the IUCN Red List since 1500. With climate change continuing, Alex Bond stated, “Things are not getting better for birds,” meaning that bird extinction will become the new normal. The best opportunity we have to conserve them both domestically and internationally is to combat pollution, habitat damage, and climate change.

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