Wildlife & Biodiversity

Global Eco Watch: Major ecological happenings of the week (October 7 – 13)

Down To Earth brings you the top happenings in the world of global ecology

 
By DTE Staff
Published: Sunday 13 October 2019

Two-thirds of North American birds at risk of extinction due to climate change

North America could lose two-thirds of its bird species because of climate change, a new report by a leading American conservation group has warned.

Some 389 of the 604 bird species of the continent that have been studied could be lost due to rising temperatures, increased sea levels, more precipitation and urbanisation, according to the report from the Audubon Society.

Among the birds that could go extinct are the wood thrush, the Baltimore oriole, the common loon and the mountain bluebird, a media report said.

In September, a report by Cornell University had found that the United States and Canada had lost 3 billion birds since 1970.

Finnish scientists discover new wasp species

Scientists at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku in Finland have discovered a new species of wasp.

The scientists, along with counterparts from two other institutes, recently sampled Afrotropical rhyssine wasps, a media report said.

The species Epirhyssa overlaeti, which is the largest African rhyssine, has been poorly studied. Only two females were known before, one collected in the 1930s in the Congo and the other one in Cameroon in the 1980s.

The scientists at Turku University found large numbers of both females and males at a single Ugandan site during their research, the report said

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