|
|
The Konza Prairie Biological Station
Konza research
Life on the Konza
Educational value
Links |
|
Going, going, gone . . . Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, Ivory-billed Woodpecker — all extinct. By Kay Garrett
|
|
|
Article:
|
|
|
|
Kim With asks her students to name a species that's become extinct in North America. She is usually met with silence. Here are a few examples: Passenger Pigeon, the most numerous bird ever to live in North America and quite possibly on the planet. The once-plentiful Carolina Parakeet; the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, once America's largest woodpecker, some 20 inches tall with a 33-inch wingspan. All are gone now, although there are occasionally reported sighting of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the remote swamps of Louisiana, a recent expedition failed to find it. For more information about bird extinctions in North America, read "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" by Kansas State University author Christopher Cokinos. Overall, there are 852 species of birds in the United States. Among them, 250 species are Neotropical migratory songbirds, many of which are in serious decline. There is documentation of an overall 50 percent decline in the volume of annual flights over the Gulf of Mexico in the last 20 years. (Source: "Endangered Birds in the United States" Copyright 2001, Green Nature.) Ninety species of U.S. birds are federally listed as Endangered or Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In Kansas, Bald Eagle, Piping Plover and Black-capped Vireo are federally listed as Threatened or Endangered. (Source: "Endangered Birds in the United States" Copyright 2001, Green Nature.) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists 124 species of "management concern" including the Common Loon, American Bittern, Reddish Egret, Red-shouldered Hawk, Snowy Plover, Black Tern, Short-eared Owl, Red-headed Woodpecker, Bell's Vireo, and Golden-winged Warbler. (Source: "Endangered Birds in the United States" Copyright 2001, Green Nature.) The U.S. government in August 2001 approved $25 million for the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, to support partnership programs to enhance habitat in the Caribbean and Latin America for migratory birds. (Source: Birdlife International) June 2002 |
|||
