The Ecology and Conservation Studies Society Free Public Lecture - Invasive alien species threaten island birds around the world
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
No booking required
Invasive alien species threaten island birds around the world
Free public lecture part of the series Birds and us.
Wild birds are popular creatures: twitchers seek them out to list them, ringers study their movements, fanciers enjoy racing them and egg collecting was popular before it became illegal. Birds have interesting historical, cultural and religious significance. Birds can even be tourist attractions, and lots of people delight in feeding them in their gardens and parks. Bird guano even boosted our agricultural fertility. Significantly, wild bird populations are used to indicate the health of our biodiversity and have been the subject of “citizen science” for many years. On the other side of the coin, however, there are problems. Birds can suffer at our hands, either deliberately or because they are in the way. For instance, albatrosses die caught on fishing long-lines and the Quelea is second only to the locust as a tropical plague. Alien species can be very controversial. Food premises need to be bird-proof and gulls breeding in our towns can harass us. Bird ‘flu risks crossing the species barrier to plague us. Bird strike is a hazard for aircraft. Game birds show us both sides of the coin; conserving their habitat conserves other species, but their harvesting kills the birds, and predatory birds are killed illegally by gamekeepers. This series explores some of these issues between birds and us.
Contact name:
Ecology and Conservation Studies Society