Hope for rare species as villagers remove invasive umbrella trees
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Hope for rare species as villagers remove invasive umbrella trees
Walk in the forests of Tanzania’s East Usumbara Mountains and you may be lucky enough to hear the metallic call – peedoopeedoo – of one of the world’s rarest birds, the Long-billed forest warbler (Artisornismoreaui).
The Long-billed forest warbler (Artisornismoreaui) found in Amani Nature Reserve feeding chicks photo: Markus Lilje, Amani Nature Reserve
This species lives nowhere else on Earth and, according the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are fewer than 250 mature individuals.
Conservationists fear the bird will be silenced forever by the steady march into its territory of invasive umbrella trees. These trees also threaten other local species of endangered birds, reptiles, insects and plants. But now there are glimmers of hope, thanks to a project that has supported local villagers to remove umbrella trees a
Credit: Monte Neate-Clegg
The mountain forests of Tanzania are more than 9,300 miles away from Salt Lake City, Utah. But, as in eastern Africa, the wild places of Utah depend on a diversity of birds to spread seeds, eat pests and clean up carrion. Birds keep ecosystems healthy. So if birds in Tanzania are in trouble in a warming climate, as found in a recent study by University of Utah researchers, people in Utah as well as in the African tropics should pay attention.
In a new study published in
Global Change Biology, doctoral student Monte Neate-Clegg and colleagues tracked the demographics of 21 bird species over 30 years of observations from a mountain forest in Tanzania. For at least six of the species, their population declined over 30 years could be most attributable to rising temperatures an effect of a warming world. Smaller birds, as well as those that live at the lower part of their elevation range, were at higher risk for slowed population growth.
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