The scientific and first-hand observations confirm that our bird population is plummeting, contributing to what has become the greatest wave of extinctions since dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago.
But, after all, 99 percent of all the species that ever lived are now extinct. So, why should we be concerned?
Let me introduce you to Edward O. Wilson, a professor of science and curator at Harvard University, and the recipient of two Pulitzer prizes and the National Medal of Science. In his book, “The Diversity of Life,” he traces his early interest in ants, and his growing awareness of the destruction of their habitat. Thus, his view enlarged to encompass other species that were being threatened, and he became an avid environmentalist.
Wilson outlines in stark detail the results of environmental problems, and warns that whether caused by climate change or human intervention, the outcome is the same.
The following blunt statement leaves an icy fear in your heart: “We do not know how many species can go extinct in an ecosystem before it collapses. Since we do not know the identities of keystone species in most ecosystems, any of the extinctions taking place could have drastic effects.”
As it happens, I’ve witnessed this decline in bird population in my travels. First in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil, where for thousands of years, the toucan lived in great flocks. Now their numbers are so reduced that the visitor has to walk for miles to find the remnants.
Then in the mountains of Peru, yearning to see the great condors, none were to be seen.
Then Hawaii, where early immigrants ate or killed the flightless birds, and the European settlers, arriving after James Cook, over a two-century period, caused the disappearance of one third of the 50 native species of landbirds.
Then in the Brazilian Amazon, where deforestation is causing extinction rates that are utterly staggering.
And in Maine, where great swatches of forests are felled for timber, leaving homeless the birds returning here from their wintering homes in Central America (where there, too, their homes are being destroyed).
For more than 3 billion years, the mystery of evolution brings us to this world of complex organisms. And now, in the words of E.O. Wilson, “The sixth great extinction spasm of geological time is upon us, grace of mankind.”
Does the bird call I’m missing this year in the forest surrounding my home in Windham signify the disappearance of a keystone specie?
Sally Breen lives in Windham.
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