Abstract
Understanding how culture may influence biodiversity is fundamental to ensure effective conservation, especially when the practice is local but the implications are global. Despite that, little effort has been devoted to documenting cases of culturally-related biodiversity loss. Here, we investigate the cultural domestication of the European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) in western Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) and the effects of long-term poaching of wild populations (1990–2016) on range distribution, socio-economic value, international trading and potential collateral damage on Afro-Palearctic migratory birds. On average, we found that the European goldfinch lost 56.7% of its distribution range in the region which led to the increase of its economic value and establishment of international trading network in western Maghreb. One goldfinch is currently worth nearly a third of the average monthly income in the region. There has been a major change in poaching method around 2010, where poachers started to use mist nets to capture the species. Nearly a third of the 16 bird species captured as by-catch of the European goldfinch poaching are migratory, of which one became regularly sold as cage-bird. These results suggest that Afro-Palearctic migratory birds could be under serious by-catch threat.
Highlights
Species overexploitation for wildlife trade is a major global threat to biodiversity, birds[1, 2]
Of the 237 selected grids (25 × 25 km2) which cover the potential habitat of the European goldfinch in western Maghreb, the species was observed in 115 grids (48.5%, n = 237) during 1990– 1991 and in only 37 grids (15.6%, n = 237) during 2015–2016
Our study shows that the domestication of the European goldfinch has had severe consequences on the dynamics of wild populations in western Maghreb and may threaten many other local and Afro-Palearctic migratory songbirds
Summary
Species overexploitation for wildlife trade is a major global threat to biodiversity, birds[1, 2]. The Mediterranean has recently been identified as a danger zone for migratory birds where 11–36 million individuals per year may be killed or taken illegally, and one of the most important reasons is for use as cage-birds[11]. This is an alarming issue for global avian diversity since one of the world's major flyways, the Palearctic-African flyway[12], crosses the Mediterranean where an estimated number of 2.1 billion Afro-Palearctic birds migrate every year back and forth from breeding to wintering grounds[13]. The understanding of the potential damages caused by the European goldfinch's poaching in western Maghreb may shed light on why many Afro-Palearctic migrant birds have declined during the past two decades[28]
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