CANBERRA, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Superb fairy-wrens, a beloved and common Australian bird twice voted the nation's favorite, could go extinct in the next 30 years due to climate change, a study warns.
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), James Cook University in Australia, and Hainan University in China analyzed more than 30 years of weekly observations of a population in the Australian National Botanic Gardens in the capital Canberra, an ANU statement said late Tuesday.
The study, published in Nature Communications, found dry springs slash breeding success, while warm winters and hot summers reduce adult survival, with cumulative effects pushing the population toward collapse.
"Using various climate models, we show that our human-induced changing climate is likely to cause extinction in the next 30-40 years, except in the unlikely scenario that we can confine greenhouse emissions to levels that have already been exceeded," ANU Emeritus Professor Andrew Cockburn said.
Urban habitat loss and predators like cats and foxes exacerbate the climate change threat, researchers warned.
The wren, twice voted Australia's Bird of the Year in 2013 and 2021, could be an early warning sign for many other less well-known species facing similar climate-related risks, they said. ■
