Once breeding in northern Asia and spending the winter in southern Europe, this migratory shorebird is probably gone. On November 17, 2024, experts declared that the Slender-billed Curlew, which roamed between Siberia and the Mediterranean, may have been extinct after its final verified sighting in north Morocco in 1995.

BirdLife International, which co-published an objective analysis with the RSPB, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and the Natural History Museum, said in a statement that “the causes of the Slender-billed Curlew’s decline may never be fully understood, but possible pressures included extensive drainage of their raised bog breeding grounds for agricultural use, the loss of coastal wetlands used for winter feeding, and hunting, especially latterly, of an already reduced, fragmented, and declining population.”

“The extent of the effects of pollution, disease, predation, and climate change is unknown, but they may have existed.”

Merja Zerga, a tidal lagoon on the Moroccan coast that faces the Atlantic Ocean, was the main wintering location for the Slender-billed Curlew. Birdwatchers last saw this species here around 29 years ago. Alex Bond, Senior Curator in Charge at the Natural History Museum, said that despite expeditions spanning “hundreds of thousands of square kilometers,” the bird was not found near its breeding grounds.

He said, “This is going to be the status quo as climate change continues.” “The situation for birds is not improving. The greatest opportunity we have to conserve them, both domestically and internationally, is to address pollution, habitat devastation, and climate change.

Prior to the Slender-billed Curlew, no worldwide bird extinction has been documented from Europe, North Africa, or West Asia.

On the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, which lists over 11,000 bird species that have been extinct since 1500, 16 more migratory shorebirds were previously moved to higher-risk categories.