African lark soon to be extinct (BBC)

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By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

The Sidamo lark could soon be the first bird on mainland Africa to die out since modern records began.

A survey has found that just a few hundred of the larks survive in Ethiopia. Unless action is taken to save it, the bird will disappear.

While it may be the first recorded bird extinction on the continent, it will not be the last, warn conservationists.

The birds inhabit a very small pocket of grassland within the Liben Plain of southern Ethiopia.

"This imminent extinction reflects a wider social and political crisis that is repeated throughout Africa," said zoologist Claire Spottiswoode of the University of Cambridge.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8000199.stm