Conservation research news

摘要

The Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur has declined rapidly in the UK (by 80% since 1995) and throughout Europe (by 29% since 1990). It is the UK's only migratory dove, spending the winter in sub-Saharan Africa, but breeding mainly on farmland, where chicks are fed on seeds. Various theories have been suggested as to the cause of the decline, including loss of foraging and/or nesting habitat, hunting on migration routes and conditions on the wintering grounds. However, in the UK a reduction in the number of late nesting attempts has meant that the overall number of chicks fledged per year has halved, and this alone is enough to account for the population decline. This has coincided with a change in diet from arable weed seeds to crop seeds, probably because favoured arable plants such as the fumitories Fumaria have declined in abundance with changing farming practices.