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Conservation science

Hunting the cause of a population crash

Nature volume 466, page 448 (2010)Cite this article

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The enigmatic spoon-billed sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus is famed for its bizarre cutlery-shaped appendage and the challenges of observing it.

Sadly, it's also known for its perplexing plunge towards extinction. It is estimated that only 120–220 pairs remain. The bird's summer breeding grounds on the Russian Chukotskiy peninsula are inaccessible to all but a few ornithologists, and — despite occasional sightings across a vast range from India to Malaysia — the main wintering sites were unknown. Zöckler and colleagues, however, now show both what the likely threats are to the overwintering birds and how those threats might be reduced (C. Zöckler et al. Wader Study Group Bull. 117, 1–8; 2010).

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  1. Tamás Székely & William J. Sutherland

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  1. Tamás Székely
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  2. William J. Sutherland
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Székely, T., Sutherland, W. Hunting the cause of a population crash. Nature 466, 448 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/466448a

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  1. Rebecca Halford

    "The story illustrates how conservation is as much a social science as a biological one. When the two come together, there is hope for real change", this is very true. However, the local people will not stop hunting the spoon-billed sandpiper martin unless there is an incentive for them to do so, and I am sure that the conservation of this species is not on the forefront of their minds because poverty doesn't allow it to be. This is just speculation, hopefully I will be proved wrong.

    What kind of incentives have there been in other areas of Myanmar? A mention of "such mechanisms have worked elsewhere"; I am curious to know what these are.

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