The Curlew, the Cactus, and the Obliterated Whitefish: The Species We Lost in 2024

Scientists also declared several other extinctions, including the first documented plant extinction in New Hampshire.

Photo credit: iStock

By The Revelator andJohn R. Platt

In 2009 teams of volunteers fanned out across 35 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia looking for something that, in all likelihood, no longer existed.

The object of their quest: a 14-inch-long shorebird with long legs, a curved beak, and a mix of white and gray feathers.

Last officially seen in 1995, the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris) had once been plentiful enough to hunt — perhaps most notably for museum specimens. That pressure, combined with habitat destruction, reportedly pushed the birds into decline.

In November 2024, after years of searches, scientists declared that the species was gone for good — the first documented extinction of a bird species from mainland Europe, North Africa and West Asia.

“It is a tragedy on a par with the dodo and the great auk, and we should hang our heads in shame,” wrote Mary Colwell of the conservation group Curlew Action. “Our disregard for wildlife speaks volumes for who and what we are. The slender-billed [curlew] may not have had an economic value, it contributed nothing to the bottom line of anyone’s financial spreadsheet, no one relied on these birds for their jobs or wellbeing, there was no conceivable reason to drive them to extinction. But it seems that is exactly what we have done.”

The biggest tragedy about this bird’s loss: We didn’t act soon enough to save it.

“Conservation attention came too late for the slender-billed curlew,” researchers wrote in the paper announcing its probable extinction. “The potential decline of the species was highlighted [in 1912] and stated more explicitly [in 1943]. These warnings were not acted on however, and the species was not recognized as being of conservation concern until 1988. After this, a [1991] review of the species and an action plan [in 1996] followed. Our analysis indicates the species was on the verge of extinction or extinct when the action plan was published.”