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Post by LittleBudgie2005 on May 15, 2007 19:48:27 GMT 7
This article can be found in The West Australian paper, World, on page 22 (Tuesday, May 15th 2007). ...Humans put New Species in Danger... A new blue-and-green-throated hummingbird species has been discovered in Colombia but experts say it already needs protection from human encroachment. The new species is called the gorgeted puffleg. The name comes from the iridescent emerald green and electric blue patch on the throat -the gorge- on males, and from tuft of white feathers at the top of the legs, a characteristic of so-called puffleg hummers. Ornithologists Alexander Cortes-Diago and Luis Alfonso Ortega made the discovery in mountian cloud forest in the Serrania del Pinche, in south-west colombia. The isolated nature of the Serrania del Pinche means it may harbour more species but it is threatened by slash-and-burn agriculture and the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make the drug cocaine. "Destruction of habit is the main threat caused by the migration of coca fields from the Caqueta and Putumayo areas to the Pacific," Luis Mazariegos-Hurtado, of the Hummingbird Conservancy in Colombia, said. He said the creation of a new protected area - a national park or sanctuary - was needed to protect the gorgeted puffleg's habitat. According to Ian Davidson, of conservation group Birdlife International, more than the fate of the flamboyantly plumed hummingbird is at stake. The gorgeted puffleg was a "flagship species" for biodiversity in the cloud forest, he said. At risk: The new species of hummingbird, the gorgeted puffleg.
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