130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe
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as carp fish farms or reservoirs [2] . It is a colonial<br />
breed<strong>in</strong>g bird and colonies are mixed with other<br />
species, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g herons, cormorants and gulls.<br />
Eurasian spoonbills nest <strong>in</strong> trees, reed beds or<br />
dunes. They forage <strong>in</strong> mudflats or other shallow<br />
open waters for small fish, shrimp or other aquatic<br />
<strong>in</strong>vertebrates [2, 4] .<br />
Legal protection and conservation status<br />
The Eurasian spoonbill is listed <strong>in</strong> Appendix II of<br />
CITES, Annex I of the EU Birds Directive, Annex II of<br />
the Bern Convention, Annex II of the Convention on<br />
Migratory Species, under which it is covered by the<br />
African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) [5] .<br />
Both populations <strong>in</strong> Europe are currently listed <strong>in</strong><br />
column A (category 2) <strong>in</strong> the AEWA action plan [6] .<br />
Abundance:<br />
current status and changes<br />
The Eurasian spoonbill cont<strong>in</strong>ental flyway<br />
population (central and southeastern Europe/<br />
Mediterranean) has shown an uncerta<strong>in</strong> but<br />
negative trend between 1988 and 2006, decl<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />
by 2.1% per year [10] (Figure 1). This apparent decl<strong>in</strong>e<br />
is mostly driven by severe decreases <strong>in</strong> Russia and<br />
IWC Population Index (%)<br />
350<br />
300<br />
250<br />
200<br />
150<br />
100<br />
50<br />
0<br />
W Europe / W Mediterranean and W Africa<br />
C & SE Europe / Mediterranean & Tropical Africa<br />
1988<br />
1989<br />
1990<br />
1991<br />
1992<br />
1993<br />
1994<br />
1995<br />
1996<br />
1997<br />
1998<br />
1999<br />
2000<br />
2001<br />
2002<br />
2003<br />
2004<br />
2005<br />
2006<br />
Turkey [3] . However, the part of the population that is<br />
<strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> Europe, as def<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> this study, is <strong>in</strong> fact<br />
<strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g [3] (Table 2). The most important populations<br />
for the European part of the cont<strong>in</strong>ental flyway<br />
are Hungary and Romania, which together make<br />
up more than 70% of the total flyway population<br />
and both of which are <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g [11, 12] (Table 2). New<br />
colonies have also recently been established <strong>in</strong> Italy,<br />
the Czech Republic and Slovakia [3, 13] .<br />
The Atlantic flyway population (west Europe<br />
and west Mediterranean) on the other hand,<br />
Figure 1.<br />
International<br />
Waterbird Census<br />
(IWC) Population<br />
Index [15] show<strong>in</strong>g<br />
the trend between<br />
1988/1990 and 2007<br />
of the two flyway<br />
populations of<br />
Eurasian spoonbills<br />
found <strong>in</strong> Europe.<br />
187