NZ bird extinction

Extinction of New zealand birds

Introduction

Few New Zealanders know how many bird species have disappeared since humans arrived in New Zealand less than 800 years ago. The number of named extinct species continues to grow, largely due to close examination of the sand dunes, cave bones on Chatham Island and places in New Zealand, but 53 species are present. Few New Zealanders know the many species we have lost, and even fewer can name than a few.

What is the definition of animal extinction?

The definition of animal extinction is when a group of kinds, usually a species, the short time of extinction is considered to be death of the very last individual of those species. So the short answer for animal extinction refers to the dying out of or killing of a species. They usually die of climate changes, loss of habitat, nitrogen pollution, hunting overfishing,disease, pollution, or other catastrophic events.

Extinction of multiple species can create niches or openings in our ecosystem, this allows for other animals to thrive but sometimes that isn’t the case. Earth is dependent on an interconnected system, the loss of one species could impact the whole ecosystem, what would happen if we lost hundreds. Extinction is part of a process of living beings, extinction must not be interpreted as a negative event or a positive one, it must be considered as what it is and it is a part of evolution.

How many native birds have gone extinct in NZ?

Back when pests didn’t arrive in New Zealand, there were over 30,000 bird species. Most of them migrate from breeding grounds on riverbeds of the south island and southern north island, to the northern harbor. But now, around 15 species of birds have become extinct since 1850 and can be seen in the museum.

Three species of birds: laughing owls, bush wren, and south island snipes. All of them were prograf in life and now have gone extinct And the rate of extinction is starting to increase. Hunting, lost habitat, and fragmented kiwi populations.was the main reason that made them become extinct for large species, while predation was introducing predators was the main reason we lost so many species. Their habitat has been dramatically reduced to make human farmland.

As you can see on the graph on the right,

Around 1000 years ago, there were more than 12 million kiwis but then time passed by. Now there are only 70,000, the number of birds surprisingly disappearing like crazy.

Why are native birds endangered?

The reasons why native birds go endangered are because of various reasons but most of them are due to us. Some of the biggest ones are climate changes, losing habitat, and predators. Efforts are being made to save a big variety of our native birds but because of these reasons, it is difficult to do so. We are making progress because New Zealand has more than 80 sanctuaries and over 100 islands are now pest free.

A long long time ago, when habitat loss drove the reduction of some native birds and it’s still a problem, predators introduced to New Zealand were the biggest blame today. 417 birds are still present in New Zealand, 56 bird species have already gone extinct. Over 40 percent are now threatened and at risk.

There are only about 217 bird species left in New zealand right now including birds everywhere in the world. The kakapo, also known as the owl bird, is a desperately endangered bird in New zealand. Some kakapo have lost their habitat and some of them also nearly were wiped out by stoats and rats. These rats were introduced to New Zealand by the European guests.

What do we lose when native species go extinct?

So, according to new research published December 2 in Nature,Everytime time an animal species goes extinct, the earth around us unravels. The consequences are heartfelt not just for those places, but also for all of us. Extinction affects our health and our chance of living in our animal species. If all the wild animals died, wild forest and grassland would die.

A big loss we have when we lose native species is biodiversity, this is literally what links life together and when animals are endangered to be extinct, biodiversity decreases, this puts the environment and the economy at risk. Ecosystems are balanced, predators eat prey so we can balance population, but when a species goes extinct, they are taken out of a food chain and animals have to find a new source of food, if a predator goes extinct, animals that get eaten by predators can increase in numbers which unbalances the food chain

Not many pests in New Zealand that are killing our native species do have predators, if we kill pests, that wouldn’t change a thing, they would be gone and our bird species would start to flourish and forests would start to grow.

How are people helping with this bird extinction?

Choose the difference between pesticides and other pesticides, natural on our private property that provide habitat for birds in this world. Plant a lot of plants behind your backyard. We need to do this because birds keep the climate solid and it also refreshes the air. People also tried to feed the bird and give the bird some more water, some even came up with an idea like: keep birds indoors. Birds play a most important role in this nature. Birds also help transfer seed and which help grow vegetation. They also turn pollution into nature.

What is the best way to minimize the effects of extinction of native birds in NZ?

Me and Harry have decided that the best option to help minimize the effects of bird extinction in New Zealand is sanctuaries. We choose this option because sanctuaries don't harm the birds and pests are far away from them. The reason why we didn’t choose the others is because pesticides can come with many positive and negative effects. With pesticides, it can easily kill pests that are shrinking our bird population. The bad side of this is that it can kill our birds as well but only some. Eradication of pests is an amazing idea and we have tried to do that for the past 6 years now, the labor we would have to put into these would take ages because we are trying to make nz pest free by 2050, thats 28 years away.