TAU study shows humans have wiped out hundreds of bird species

11 August 2021, 2:27 pm

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Greater flamingo at the International Birding and Research Center Eilat. (Noam Weiss, IBRCE)

A new study from Tel Aviv University reveals that humans have caused the extinction of many hundreds of bird species over the last 50,000 years.

The study, carried out in conjunction with the Weizmann Institute, shows that humans are responsible for the disappearance of about 10%-20% of all avian species. Researchers claim that the vast majority of the extinct species shared several features: they were large, they lived on islands, and many of them were flightless.

The researchers involved in the study think that the extinction was caused primarily by humans, who hunted the birds for food, or by animals brought to islands by humans who fed on the birds and/or their eggs.