Avian extinction and mammalian introductions on oceanic islands

Author:

Blackburn, Tim, Cassey, Phillip, Duncan, Richard, Evans, Karl, Gaston, Kevin

Title:

Avian extinction and mammalian introductions on oceanic islands

Periodical:

Science

Year:

2004

Volume:

305

Pages:

1955-1958

Subject:

Birds

Summary:

The arrival of humans on island sites hastened a wave of extinctions among the native birds with the rate of extinction varying greatly among the birds. This report shows that the probability that a bird species that was totally destroyed from each of the 220 islands was connected with the number of predatory mammals that were established on the islands after European colonization and that the effect of these predators was greater on the endemic species of the islands. However, the proportions of currently threatened species are independent of the numbers of exotic mammalian predators. This suggests that the principal threat to the island birds changed through time as species susceptible to exotic predators became extinct.

Label:

Birds - General

URL:

http://cletus.uhh.hawaii.edu:2074/10.1126/science.1101617

Date:

Sept. 24, 2004

Collection:

Periodicals