Watchdog permits 170k wild bird killings in five years

theguardian.com

28 pointshoward9414 comments

I hate when articles like this throw big numbers around without giving context, clearly preying on emotional responses. And leading with the cute owl chick picture certainly emphasizes that feeling.

What are corresponding population sizes for the bird species and their endangerment status? What sort of impact this killing actually has had?

The top one on the list, the greylag goose, was subject to about 68k destructions. In 2011 the number of greylag geese in the UK was 140k. In 2008 it was 86k and in 1930 it was 500.

They are rated as Least Concern globally, but it seems fair to estimate the number of interventions at about one third to half of the population.

Note that the 68k was over the period of five years, so about 14k/year. Considering how the population has grown, I can't feel too sorry for the geese in this case. Of course the situation probably is quite different for other species.

I missed that, thanks!

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