Large-scale trade in a songbird that is extinct in the wild

Nijman, V; Campera, M; Rocha El Bizri, H; Hedger, K; Ali Imron, M; Morcatty, T; Weldon, A; Nekaris, K

Abstract

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Large-Scale Trade in a Songbird That Is Extinct in the Wild
by Vincent Nijman 1,*ORCID,Marco Campera 1,2,*ORCID,Ahmad Ardiansyah 2,3,Michela Balestri 1,2,Hani R. El Bizri 1ORCID,Budiadi Budiadi 4,Tungga Dewi 2,Katherine Hedger 2ORCID,Rifqi Hendrik 2,Muhammad Ali Imron 4ORCID,Abdullah Langgeng 2,5,Thais Q. Morcatty 1ORCID,Ariana V. Weldon 1ORCID andK. A. I. Nekaris 1,2ORCID
1
Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
2
Little Fireface Project, Cipaganti, Garut 44163, Indonesia
3
Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
4
Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Gajah Madah, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
5
Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto 484-8506, Japan
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Diversity 2021, 13(6), 238; https://doi.org/10.3390/d13060238
Received: 29 April 2021 / Revised: 24 May 2021 / Accepted: 28 May 2021 / Published: 30 May 2021
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Abstract
Indonesia is at the epicenter of the Asian Songbird Crisis, i.e., the recognition that the cage bird trade has a devastating impact on numerous imperiled bird species in Asia. The Javan pied starling Gracupica jalla, only in the last five years recognized as distinct from the pied starlings of mainland Southeast Asia, has been declared extinct the wild in 2021. Up until the 1980s, it used to be one of the most common open countryside birds on the islands of Java and Bali, Indonesia. From the early 2000s onwards, the species is commercially bred to meet the demand from the domestic cagebird trade. We conducted 280 market surveys in 25 bird markets in Java and Bali between April 2014 and March 2020, with 15 markets being surveyed at least six times. We recorded 24,358 Javan pied starlings, making it one of the most commonly observed birds in the markets. We established that, conservatively, around 40% of the birds in the market were sold within one week and used this to estimate that at a minimum ~80,000 Javan pied starlings are sold in the bird markets on Java and Bali. The latter represents a monetary value of USD5.2 million. We showed that prices were low in the 1980s, when all birds were sourced from the wild. It became more varied and differentiated in the 2000s when a combination of now expensive wild-caught and cheaper captive-bred birds were offered for sale, and prices stabilized in the 2010s when most, if not all birds were commercially captive-bred. Javan pied starlings are not protected under Indonesian law, and there are no linked-up conservation efforts in place to re-establish a wild population on the islands, although small-scale releases do take place.

Citation

Nijman, V., Campera, M., Rocha El Bizri, H., Hedger, K., Ali Imron, M., Morcatty, T., …Nekaris, K. (2021). Large-scale trade in a songbird that is extinct in the wild. Diversity, 13(6), 238. https://doi.org/10.3390/d13060238

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 28, 2021
• Publication Date: May 30, 2021
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 26, 2023
• Journal: Diversity
• Publisher: MDPI
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 238
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/d13060238
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/d13060238
• Additional Information: Funders : Cleveland Zoo and Zoo Society;Columbus Zoo and Aquarium