Fragmentation has major impact on birds – Dr. Sampath Seneviratne
A colourful saree is what came on the screen first and soon after, cut up into strips, effectively destroying its beauty.
Like the saree’s beauty and purpose being lost, fragmentation of the landscape has had a massive adverse impact on birds, was the point of Dr. Sampath Seneviratne who is a Senior Lecturer in Zoology and Environment Sciences at the University of Colombo and current President of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL).
“With fragmentation, the birds too are disappearing,” he stressed, moving onto the “significant role” played by birds in the story of conservation. The health of the planet can be studied by looking at the migratory patterns of birds.
Linking birds and humans through strong comparisons, Dr. Seneviratne said that birds provide a lot more than just colours and shapes in the landscape. Humans are different to other mammal species when taking into account mating and visual sensory complexities. Most mammals have either one or two dimensional vision, without colour vision. But like humans, birds even though not being mammals have colour vision.
Birds are socially monogamous similar to humans, sticking to one partner for life, whereas most mammals are polygamous. Most birds use vision for day-to- day functions, similar to humans. Birds also have learning like humans.
Unfortunately, birds are disappearing very fast. According to a global report of BirdLife International last year, 25% of birds of 10,000 species are endangered worldwide. The report expanded recently by the UN states that globally over one million species including birds are threatened with extinction.
He said that in Sri Lanka, the number of forest birds is dropping at an alarming rate, while home- garden species are not affected much. According to statistics collected from the Kottowa Arboretum, Galle, in the past 150 years, about 30% of the species, a majority being endemics, have simply disappeared, even though forest boundaries remained unchanged.
“If you have the full population in a connected manner, survival rates would be substantially higher, with a lower risk of extinction. When the population is broken up, each small segment becomes endangered. Connecting existing patches by creating home gardens and green corridors is the way forward in bird conservation,” said Dr. Seneviratne, adding that this is valid not only for birds but all wildlife, big or small.