Endangered Inktober - Masked Finfoot by CiamethDay 17 - Masked Finfoot, Heliopais personatusIUCN S
Endangered Inktober - Masked Finfoot by Ciameth Day 17 - Masked Finfoot, Heliopais personatusIUCN Status: EndangeredThe finfoots are unusual birds in the order Gruiformes, along with cranes, coots, rails, and flufftails. There are three species of finfoot - the African Finfoot, the Sungrebe of South America, and the Masked Finfoot of southeast Asia. It is an endangered species, with as few as 600 individuals left. Habitat loss and degradation are the primary cause of the species’ decline. The Masked Finfoot is a riverine forest and wetland bird; those two habitats are polluted by silt and chemical run off from logging and agriculture through much of the Finfoot’s range. Climate change is reducing the number of trees available for finfoot nesting as rising sea levels increase salinity in low elevation freshwater habitats, killing vegetation. Oil spills have caused mass mortality in specific Masked Finfoot populations. The Masked Finfoot is also subject to egg-collection and subsistence hunting on a local level, but this is a minor threat on top of the more significant damage caused by habitat loss and climate change. -- source link
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