Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Oxon, UK.
Biol Lett. 2010 Dec 23;6(6):777-80. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.0373. Epub 2010 Jun 9.
Long-term studies have revealed population declines in fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. In birds, and particularly amphibians, these declines are a global phenomenon whose causes are often unclear. Among reptiles, snakes are top predators and therefore a decline in their numbers may have serious consequences for the functioning of many ecosystems. Our results show that, of 17 snake populations (eight species) from the UK, France, Italy, Nigeria and Australia, 11 have declined sharply over the same relatively short period of time with five remaining stable and one showing signs of a marginal increase. Although the causes of these declines are currently unknown, we suspect that they are multi-faceted (such as habitat quality deterioration, prey availability), and with a common cause, e.g. global climate change, at their root.
长期研究表明，鱼类、两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类和哺乳动物的数量都在减少。在鸟类中，尤其是在两栖动物中，这种减少是一种全球性的现象，其原因往往不清楚。在爬行动物中，蛇是顶级掠食者，因此它们数量的减少可能会对许多生态系统的功能产生严重后果。我们的研究结果表明，在来自英国、法国、意大利、尼日利亚和澳大利亚的 17 种蛇类种群（8 个物种）中，有 11 种在相对较短的时间内急剧减少，5 种保持稳定，1 种显示出略有增加的迹象。尽管这些减少的原因目前尚不清楚，但我们怀疑它们是多方面的（如栖息地质量恶化、猎物供应减少），其根本原因可能是共同的，例如全球气候变化。
