The last jump of Little Bustard
The Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax) is a steppe bird adapted to the dry grassland and traditional farmland of Southwest Europe. It requires great diversity of microhabitats for breeding and nesting and abundant insects for food. These conditions only exist in agricultural landscapes with diverse farmland mosaics including pasture, long-rotation fallow land and legume crops.
The species in Europe is currently listed in the IUCN Red List under the category Vulnerable. A study carried out by SEO (Spanish Ornithological Society) concludes that the Little Bustard is one of the four bird species whose population has declined the most in Spain since 1996, with a decrease of more than fifty percent.
Can this charismatic bird survive Europe’s rush to intensive agriculture?
