Race to protect tiny Aussie bird from growing threat: 'Wiped out one by one'
Spotting a purple-crowned fairy-wren in the wild is no easy task, but a small change in temperature could see them completely vanish.
Weighing less than a 50-cent coin, it’s a tiny Aussie bird you need to have an eagle eye to see. But sadly spotting the purple-crowned fairy-wren in the wild may soon be impossible, because a major change in the weather looks set to wipe it out.
The warning comes after a collaboration between World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia (WWF) and Deakin University examined how a rise in temperature by two degrees above preindustrial levels would impact the birds across the country's north.
World average temperatures have already increased by around 1.5 degrees, and at this level of warming the bird will likely retain 61 per cent of its habitat. But if the temperature rises by a further 0.5 degrees that figure is set to flip, and it will lose 62 per cent.
The research follows a 2022 study by Monash University which found climate change was causing purple-crowned fairy-wrens to age and die prematurely.
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Why would a temperature rise wipe out the bird's habitat?
WWF-Australia’s Dr Leonie Valentine explained that purple-crowned fairy-wrens require a specialised habitat that would substantially diminish at two degrees.
“These birds require dense vegetation beside waterways for survival, but that type of riparian habitat only occurs in patches throughout northern Australia. At 2 degrees of warming these already small areas of habitat will reduce by such an extent that populations will become increasingly unviable,” she said.
“Droughts and heatwaves diminish breeding success, fairy-wrens perish after bushfires destroy habitat, and floods wash away nests and nesting habitat. As climate change causes these events to become more frequent and intense, many populations could be wiped out one by one.”
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With invasive species and habitat destruction already taking a toll on the bird, the change in weather could trigger its extinction.
Australia has one of the worst rates of habitat loss and worst records of extinction in the world. It has the sad distinction of recording the first-ever species loss caused by climate change.
WWF-Australia called on the country’s leaders to act to reduce emissions at home to help stabilise the temperature increase at 1.5 degrees.
“When we have our house in order then we must encourage and support all other countries to do the same,” its manager of energy policy Ariane Wilkinson said. “At 1.5 degrees we’ll still be in for a rough ride but within the lifespan of our youngest children, we could return the global climate to a stable state.”
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