By Helen Briggs BBC News
10 February 2017
The first comprehensive
assessment of Europe's crickets and grasshoppers has found that more than a
quarter of species are being driven to extinction.
According to the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the insect group is the most
threatened of those assessed so far in Europe.
Europe harbours more than 1,000
species of grasshopper and cricket.
If we don't act now the sound of
crickets could become a thing of the past, said the IUCN.
Crickets, bush crickets and
grasshoppers - a group known as Orthoptera - live on grassland.
They are an important food source
for birds and reptiles, and their decline could affect entire ecosystems.
Their habitat is being lost due
to wildfires, intensive agriculture and tourism development.
Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy
director, IUCN Global Species Programme, said to bring these species back from
the brink of extinction, more needs to be done to protect and restore their
habitats.
"This can be done through
sustainable grassland management using traditional agricultural practices, for
example," he said.
"If we do not act now, the
sound of crickets in European grasslands could soon become a thing of the
past."
The assessment took place over
two years and involved more than 150 scientists.
Axel Hochkirch is chair of the
IUCN invertebrate conservation sub-committee and lead author of the report.
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