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Direct mortality due to humans threatens migratory shorebirds

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 9, pages 2080–2091 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The decline of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway has attracted global attention. Conservation efforts thus far have targeted habitat loss and degradation in the Yellow Sea region, with little attention having been given to direct mortality by humans. Here we studied the impacts of direct mortality of shorebirds along China’s coast during migration from hunting, fishery bycatch and, at aquaculture sites, bird deterrence measures. We estimated that approximately 47,870 shorebirds were killed at 19 stopover sites per year, mainly from hunting and deterrence. Mortalities for 11 shorebird species account for 1% to 10% of their known total flyway populations. Conservative annual direct mortality rates for four species exceeded sustainable levels, with nine other species approaching unsustainable levels. Direct mortality due to humans is clearly a major overlooked threat to migratory shorebird populations along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. Reducing it is essential to conserving these declining species.

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Fig. 1: Sites where hunting, bycatch and deterrence mortality of migratory shorebirds were studied along China’s coast.
Fig. 2: Estimated shorebird mortality due to hunting, bycatch and deterrence at stopover sites along China’s coasts.
Fig. 3: Estimated mortality relative to flyway population size for 22 shorebird species due to hunting, bycatch and deterrence at stopover sites along China’s coasts.
Fig. 4: SHI estimates for EAAF shorebirds due to direct anthropogenic mortality.

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Data availability

The data for calculating shorebird mortality rates and estimating mortality are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15617159 (ref. 39).

Code availability

The R code for calculating shorebird mortality rates and estimating mortality is available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15617159 (ref. 39).

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Huang, S. Sun, X. Liu, J. Liu, G. Chen, S. Lin, Z. Zeng, H. Li, W. Hou, H. Chen, H. Xiao, Y. Yao, H. Du, L. Xu, Y. Liu, W. Yue, Z. Tan, D. Wei, C. Geng, J. Yang, Z. Yuan and numerous other field assistants and volunteers for their assistance in the field. We also thank S. Zhang and Q. Bai for logistical support in the field. We appreciate Yalujiang National Nature Reserve Bureau for permitting us to conduct fieldwork. We thank C. Y. Choi for discussions on study design, and W. A. Chaves for discussions on statistics. This work was funded by the Ma Huateng Foundation and the High Meadows Foundation for D.L. and D.S.W., and the Zhilan Foundation (grant nos. 2022100151A and 2024010651A) for D.L.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Dan Liang, Tong Mu & David S. Wilcove

  2. State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China

    Dan Liang, Zhikai Liao & Yang Liu

  3. Spoon-Billed Sandpiper (Shanghai) Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China

    Ziyou Yang, Yudi Wang, Jing Li & Shangxiao Cai

  4. School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Minghai Huang, Yuelou Liu & Luting Song

  5. Yunnan Wild Bird Association, Kunming, China

    Xuelian Zhang

  6. Fujian Birdwatching Society, Fuzhou, China

    Yixiao Wang

  7. College of Forestry, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming, China

    Zhikai Liao & Shixiang Fan

  8. Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Barry R. Noon

  9. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Xingli Giam

  10. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    David S. Wilcove

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Contributions

D.L. and D.S.W. conceived of and designed the study with input from T.M. D.L., Z.Y., Yudi Wang, J.L., M.H., Yuelou Liu, L.S., S.C., X.Z., Yixiao Wang, Z.L., S.F. and Yang Liu conducted the fieldwork. D.L. analysed the data with input from X.G. and B.R.N. D.L. wrote the first draft of this paper. D.L., T.M., Z.Y., Yang Liu and D.S.W. revised and improved the paper. All authors read and approved the paper.

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Correspondence to Dan Liang.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Different net types used by hunters, fishers, and aquaculture farmers.

Panel a shows the four types of nets used for hunting. Mist nets are either black or brown and can be differentiated by the number of shelves (type 1 mist net: four or five shelves with mesh sizes of 3.4 cm - 4 cm; type 2 mist net: two shelves with mesh size of 2.5 cm). The fishing net is clear colored with only one shelf (one layer with mesh size of 3 cm), equipped with floats and weights, but it is used by hunters to capture shorebirds. The clap net consists of two rectangular nets laid flat on the ground, connected with manually operated poles, often accompanied by live birds as decoys. Panel b shows two types of nets used for capturing fish (fish net; three layers with mesh size of 3.2 cm) and shrimp (shrimp net; one layer with mesh size of 2.5 cm), which sit on the mudflats but can accidentally capture shorebirds. Panel c shows the often clear-colored deterrence nets (mesh size: 26 cm) placed horizontally, supported by long poles, and positioned 5-6 m above the ground, deterring birds from eating young razor clams.

Extended Data Fig. 2 The impacts of variables on mortality rates for shorebirds from hunting at three hunting sites.

a: overall mortality rates for shorebirds (all species combined). b – n: 13 mortality rates for individual shorebird species. Due to the difficulty in distinguishing between Kentish and White-faced Plovers, and between Siberian and Little Sand Plovers, we grouped them together to model mortality rates. For predictions, we used mortality rates for Kentish Plovers in northern China and Siberian Sand Plovers in southern and southeastern China (see Methods). The reference levels are ‘LZBA’ for site, ‘August’ for month, ‘day’ for period, and ‘Fish net’ for tool. Coefficients were derived from 10,000 posterior draws of the model outputs. Error bars indicate the 95% and 50% CIs around the mean coefficient estimates. Coefficients whose 95% CIs do not overlap zero are considered statistically significant and are highlighted in bold.

Extended Data Fig. 3 The impacts of different variables on mortality rates for shorebirds due to bycatch at two sites.

a – e: models for mortality rates for all shorebirds (a) and four individual shorebird species (b - e) due to fishing nets at the Luannan Coasts and Nanpu Saltworks (LCNS). The reference levels are ‘fall’ for season and ‘day’ for period. f – i: models for mortality rates for all shorebirds (f) and three shorebird species (g - i) due to shrimp nets at the Yalu Jiang Nature Reserve (YJNR), with ‘parallel’ as the reference level for net orientation. Coefficients were derived from 10,000 posterior draws of the model outputs. Error bars indicate the 95% and 50% CIs around the mean coefficient estimates. Coefficients whose 95% CIs do not overlap zero are considered statistically significant and are highlighted in bold.

Extended Data Fig. 4 The impacts of different variables on mortality rates for shorebirds due to deterrence netting at eight aquaculture farms.

a: models for mortality rates for all shorebirds. b – k: models for mortality rates for 10 individual shorebird species. The reference levels are ‘BQCO’ for site, ‘day’ for period, and ‘April’ for month. Coefficients were derived from 10,000 posterior draws of the model outputs. Error bars indicate the 95% and 50% CIs around the mean coefficient estimates. Coefficients whose 95% CIs do not overlap zero are considered statistically significant and are highlighted in bold.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Estimated shorebird mortality due to hunting at three stopover sites along China’s coasts.

Mortality estimates are shown for shorebirds at a: Laizhou Bay (LZBA), b: Shankou Mangrove NNR (SKMN), and c: Yinggehai Saltpan (YGSA). Each estimate consists of 10,000 values, with median values and 95% (and 50%) confidence intervals reported to account for uncertainties (see Supplementary Table 8).

Extended Data Fig. 6 Estimated shorebird mortality due to bycatch at two stopover sites along China’s coasts.

Mortality estimates are shown for shorebirds at a: Luannan Coast and Nanpu Saltwork (LCNS), and b: Yalu Jiang NNR (YJNR). Each estimate consists of 10,000 values, with median values and 95% (and 50%) confidence intervals reported to account for uncertainties (see Supplementary Table 9).

Extended Data Fig. 7 Estimated shorebird mortality due to deterrence netting at eight stopover sites in southeastern China.

Mortality estimates are shown for shorebirds at: a-h: Yueqing Bay (YQBA), Xinghua Bay (XHBA), Xinghua Bay West (XHBW), Beiqi Coast (BQCO), Yanpu Bay (YPBA), Niyu Island (NYIS), Dagang Bay (DGBA), and Damu Yang Coast (DYCO). i: Estimated shorebird mortality at six additional sites where only nets were measured, not mortality rates. In this case, we used the average mortality rates from six randomly surveyed sites (including XHBW, BQCO, YPBA, NYIS, DGBA, and DYCO). Each mortality estimate consists of 10,000 values, with median values and 95% (and 50%) confidence intervals reported to account for uncertainties (see Supplementary Table 10).

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Liang, D., Mu, T., Yang, Z. et al. Direct mortality due to humans threatens migratory shorebirds. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 2080–2091 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02848-8

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