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Science 24 September 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5692, p. 1869
DOI: 10.1126/science.305.5692.1869o
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Hundreds of bird species on oceanic islands have become extinct since the arrival of humans, because of local causes that include hunting, habitat destruction, competition, and predation by introduced species. Variability in the likelihood that bird species have been driven extinct has been ascribed to variation in the intrinsic characteristics of the islands themselves, such as their area or their degree of isolation from the nearest continental landmass. However, islands also vary in the richness of their introduced predator communities. From data compiled from over 200 oceanic islands, Blackburn et al. (p. 1955) show that birds living on islands with more predators have been more likely to go extinct, that the influence of predators is greater on endemic bird species, and that each predator introduction increases extinction probability.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)