Russia Counts Sparrows Once Exported to China
A nationwide sparrow census will take place from February 7 to 15. It is organized on a voluntary basis by the Russian Bird Conservation Union (Soyuz okhrany ptits Rossii). Such a census is conducted twice a year — in winter and summer.
«Studying the problem based on regularly received information will allow specialists to take effective measures in time and not put widespread species at risk of extinction,» the organizers« portal reports.
Anyone can become a counter. To do so, you need to register on the Union«s website and fill out a questionnaire. There you will also find all instructions on how to properly organize the process. Volunteers will receive participation certificates for correct data.
«Sparrows are a synanthropic species, especially the house sparrow, meaning they live near human dwellings. But over the last 30 years or so, it has been noticed that the sparrow population has begun to decline. This happens for various reasons: environmental pollution, insufficient bird feeding, harsh winters, and reduced vegetation in the city,» Igor Gavrilov, head of the natural science department of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum, candidate of biological sciences, associate professor of the Department of Hunting Resource Studies at Siberian Federal University (SFU), told NGS24.RU.
According to him, urban birds, including sparrows, are a good indicator of the ecological situation in the city: how polluted it is and what unfavorable conditions are developing. A decrease in their numbers is one of the signs that things are bad.
«At one time, in the 1940s–1950s, the Chinese decided to fight sparrows in the fields: they believed that sparrows were destroying grain crops and ruthlessly killed them, exterminated them, and hauled them away from the fields by machines.
Within just two or three years, they experienced massive crop failures, insect infestations, pests, and so on. And they were forced to import these sparrows from the Soviet Union to restore the population.
In parks and squares, they destroy a huge number of insects that can be harmful to various crops. The Russian Bird Conservation Union periodically declares the year of the starling, the year of the finch, or some other birds. And any drawing of attention to this issue is good,» shares Igor Gavrilov.
A year ago, we reported that there are fewer small birds in Krasnoyarsk. At that time, the head of the Center for Biodiversity Monitoring at SFU, Pyotr Savchenko, commented to NGS24.RU that this could be due to the massive pruning of trees.
