The birds Europe’s only long-distance migratory dove spend a third of the year at their breeding grounds in the Mediterranean including Israel and Europe, overwintering in the African Sahel.
A European turtle dover shot dead by a ‘sport’ hunter in the Hula Valley in northern Israel, September 2, 2020. (KKL-JNF Chief Birdwatcher, Yaron Cherka)
Their numbers have been in freefall since the 1970s.
Down by 50 percent in Europe over the last 16 years, drops of more than 90% have been recorded in countries such as the UK.
In light of this rapid decline, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recently upgraded the turtle dove’s status from vulnerable to globally threatened three categories away from extinct.
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