130925-studie-wildlife-comeback-in-europe

No. of breeding pairs
1,600
1,200
800
400
0
1939
Figure 2.
Number of Peregrine
falcon breeding pairs
in the UK since the
1930s [10, 12, 34, 40–45] .
1949
1959
1969
1979
1989
1999
2009
Historically, populations in Europe were stable,
but serious declines occurred from the mid-1960s
to the mid-1970s [10] . In Fennoscandia, for example,
a possible reduction of 95% of the population
size at the start of the 20 th century occurred by
the1970s [11] and dramatic declines also occurred
in the UK [12] , Czech Republic [13] , Germany [14, 15] ,
France [16, 17] and Bulgaria [18] . During the 1970s, the
species became extinct from the former German
Democratic Republic [15] , Belgium [10] , Denmark [10, 19] ,
Estonia [20] , Latvia [21] , Slovakia [22] , Hungary [23, 24] and
Poland [25] , while the population in Switzerland
was reduced to a single breeding pair [26] . The tree
nesting population, which used to number 4,000
pairs [27] , was extirpated during this period [28] .
Following this period of decline, the population
in Europe and elsewhere recovered to pre-de-
cline levels [10] , recolonising for example the
former German Democratic Republic in the
early 1980s [15] , and later on the Netherlands [29] ,
Belgium [10] , Poland [25, 30] , Hungary [23] , Slovakia [22]
and Lithuania [31] . In some cases, such as in Britain,
Ireland and the Netherlands, Peregrine falcons are
currently more numerous than they have ever
been [29, 32] . However, the tree nesting population in
central Europe remains very small, at around 40
pairs [2, 27, 33] .
Peregrine falcons in the UK have been surveyed
regularly since the 1930s, with censuses carried
out every ten years or so [34] , documenting the
population development of the species in this key
country (Figure 2). The population was stable in
the early 1900s, but declined during World War 2
(1939–1945) [35] . This was followed by a period of
recovery and populations in most of Britain were
considered to be stable by the early 1950s [35] . A
second period of decline began in 1955 and the UK
population reached its lowest point in 1963 [32] . By
the mid-1980s, the population had recovered to
its pre-World War 2 levels and then continued to
increase [12, 32] .
Distribution:
current status and changes
Peregrine falcon distribution in Europe declined in
the 1960s and 1970s, and the species went extinct
in a number of regions (Figure 3). Evidence of the
Figure 3.
Current distribution
of Peregrine falcon in
Europe and historical
distribution in the
1950s [72] and 1980s [73] .
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