Robert Heinsohn

Illegal wildlife trade is a major driver of biodiversity loss but the lack of understanding of mechanisms sustaining criminal networks hampers law enforcement. We integrated three decades of confiscation data, criminological modeling, and spatial network analysis to dissect the illegal parrot trade in Mexico, a global hotspot of parrot diversity and endemism. Our interdisciplinary approach revealed that the wildlife trade is the leading threat, elevating their extinction risk. Trade is shifting from poverty-driven to population density-linked patterns. Circuit theory-based landscape modeling identified critical trade routes from biodiverse habitats to urban centers, providing actionable targets for law enforcement. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of combining criminological methods with landscape science to identify specific trafficking routes, a transferable framework for generating actionable intelligence. Crucially, because illicit wildlife networks frequently converge with broader organized crime, this spatial framework provides a powerful proxy for exposing the shared logistical corridors of global illicit markets.

As biodiversity continues to decline amid the global extinction crisis, ex-situ management, including breeding animals in captivity for release, is becoming increasingly utilised. However, these programs represent significant investments, with no guarantee of success. It is often uncertain whether a conservation breeding program could effectively contribute to species recovery. We review two large, long-term conservation breeding programs to develop a population model for the critically endangered swift parrot ( Lathamus discolor ). We use a population viability analysis to construct a theoretical captive breeding program to investigate the role a breeding and release program might play in delaying the current extinction trajectory. We modelled how different sized programs could supply individuals for release to supplement the wild population to generate expectations on the timeframe, release numbers, and costs involved. The modelled programs could maintain the wild population of swift parrots at low levels (< 250 birds) while releases were ongoing. After releases ceased, unabated threats would cause the wild population to sharply decline, with most simulated populations becoming extinct within 10 years if threats to the in-situ population are not mitigated. Cost estimates for these modelled programs (including releases, captive husbandry, and salaries) ranged from $54–123 million. Although releases from captivity can delay extinction and buy time to facilitate in-situ conservation efforts, they represent a significant financial investment. Ex-situ management alone cannot recover threatened populations and must be considered in conjunction with in-situ conservation efforts.

Large‐scale, cross‐species comparative analyses on cooperative breeding—where individuals care for the offspring of other group members—are important for understanding sociality and cooperation. However, the datasets that facilitate these analyses are often limited in precision. To advance comparative research on cooperative breeding, we hereby introduce the Cooperative‐Breeding Database (Co‐BreeD) for birds and mammals. We describe key features of Co‐BreeD's structure: (i) integration of complementary datasets, each presenting a biological parameter relevant to cooperative‐breeding research; (ii) sample‐based (i.e. multiple samples per species linked to an exact sampling location and period); and (iii) open‐source. Respectively, these features enable: (a) comprehensive identification of cooperative‐breeding species according to the user's chosen definition, (b) linking intra‐ and inter‐specific variation in traits with fine‐scale environmental parameters and (c) enabling the research community to correct and expand this database. We present the initial Co‐BreeD dataset, which estimates the prevalence of breeding events involving potential alloparents in 460 populations of 324 species, including 6 human populations (No. total = 43,247 breeding events). We conclude by demonstrating: (i) how Co‐BreeD can improve comparative research (e.g. by enabling the study of cooperative breeding as a continuous rather than a binary trait); and (ii) that cooperative breeding is probably more prevalent than previously estimated in birds and mammals.

Implementing evidence‐based strategies to manage pest species is critical to limit global extinctions. The overabundance of a hyperaggressive native songbird—the noisy miner Manorina melanocephala—has emerged as a broad‐scale conservation issue in eastern Australia. However, a strategic noisy miner management plan does not currently exist at state or national levels. Citizen science data indicate noisy miner populations continue to expand and/or increase in most areas. The negative impacts of noisy miner overabundance on the abundance and diversity of co‐occurring bird populations and the broader health of woodland, coastal forest, and urban ecosystems have probably been underestimated and may well exacerbate in the future. Failing to manage noisy miner overabundance will jeopardize Australia's ability to achieve its biodiversity commitments through the Nature Repair Market. We synthesize evidence from attempts to manage noisy miners through culling and habitat restoration and use this evidence to develop a conceptual framework for managing noisy miner overabundance in diverse landscapes. There is some evidence that culling and habitat restoration may mitigate noisy miner overabundance, but inconsistent management and short‐term monitoring approaches mean key knowledge gaps persist regarding how and where reducing noisy miner overabundance can most benefit biodiversity. To avoid further declines and potential extinctions of the most at‐risk species, targeted noisy miner management is urgently needed. By implementing strategic management and standardized, long‐term monitoring, maximum inference can be gained to refine approaches over time.

Over 40% of bird species learn their vocalizations from conspecifics. Avian vocalizations therefore represent one of the most pervasive and quantifiable examples of culturally acquired behaviour that evolves and is maintained within populations through conformity and selection. We review research exploring the loss of vocal culture in wild birds and synthesize how this loss may occur through three processes, defined as erosion/fragmentation, divergence and convergence. We discuss the potential to conserve avian vocal cultures in the wild and in captivity, using the regent honeyeater Anthochaera phrygia as a case study. Given the current rates of global biodiversity decline, we predict that more examples of avian vocal culture loss will emerge in the future. There is a need, therefore, for a better understanding of (i) how pervasive loss of vocal culture is in birds; (ii) what factors predispose birds to loss of vocal culture; (iii) the fitness costs of loss of vocal culture, including the population size or density range within which fitness costs may be greatest; and (iv) how vocal cultures can best be conserved or restored. This knowledge could then inform management actions such that the diversity of the world’s birds and their vocalizations can be maintained for generations to come. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Animal culture: conservation in a changing world’.

Habitat loss is a major driver of biodiversity decline, often occurring in a slow‐paced, piecemeal way. The cumulative impacts of such loss can be substantial for threatened species but are challenging to quantify and thus factor into planning decisions—particularly for mobile species with large ranges and irregular settlement patterns. We combined remote sensing and population viability analysis to estimate the cumulative impact of various winter habitat loss scenarios on the critically endangered, migratory swift parrot Lathamus discolor in south‐eastern Australia. Swift parrots suffer from predation during nesting and logging of their Tasmanian breeding habitat, but the Hunter‐Central Coast (HCC) of New South Wales is an important wintering area for the species and also amogst the most rapidly developing. If threats from predation and logging in Tasmania are addressed but habitat loss occurs throughout the species' wintering range at the rate observed in the HCC, the swift parrot population is expected to decline by 16% over 50 years. If observed rates of habitat loss in the HCC continue, halve, or double, the additional impact from that region alone on the swift parrot population could lead to a decline of 32% over 100 years. Our study emphasizes the need to avoid cumulative impacts across the full range of mobile species to help prevent their extinction.

Global biodiversity is rapidly declining due to habitat degradation and genomic erosion, highlighting the urgent need to monitor endangered species and their genetic health. Temporal genomics and ecological modelling offer finer resolution than single-time-point measurements, providing a comprehensive view of species’ recent and future trajectories. We investigated genomic erosion and environmental suitability in the critically endangered regent honeyeater ( Anthochaera phrygia ) by sequencing whole genomes of historical and modern specimens and building multi-temporal species distribution models (SDMs) across the last century. The species has declined from hundreds of thousands of individuals to fewer than 300 over the past 100 years. SDMs correctly predicted known patterns of local extinction in southeast Australia. Our demographic reconstructions revealed a gradual population decline from 2000 to 2500 years ago, sharply accelerating in the last 500 years due to climate variability and habitat loss. Despite this substantial demographic collapse, the regent honeyeater has lost only 9% of its genetic diversity, with no evidence of inbreeding or connectivity loss. Also, it exhibits higher diversity than many other threatened bird species. Forward-in-time genomic simulations indicate that this time lag between population decline and genetic diversity loss conceals the risk of ongoing genomic erosion into a future of rapidly degrading environmental suitability. Our work underscores the need for targeted conservation efforts and continuous genetic monitoring to prevent species extinction.