Editing Alpine chough (section)

==Status==
[[File:Pyrrhocorax-graculus-0020-a.jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph showing the left side of an Alpine chough perched standing on rocky ground|In the [[Alps]], Innsbruck, Austria]]
The Alpine chough has an extensive though sometimes fragmented range, estimated at 1–10&nbsp;million&nbsp;square kilometres (0.4–3.8&nbsp;million sq mi), and a large population, including an estimated 260,000 to 620,000 individuals in Europe. The Corsican population has been estimated to comprise about 2,500 birds.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Delestrade, A. |title=Statut, distribution et abondance du chocard à bec jaune Pyrrhocorax graculus en Corse | trans-title = Status, distribution and abundance of the Alpine Chough ''Pyrrhocorax graculus'' in Corsica, Mediterranean France |journal= Alauda |volume= 61 |issue= 1 |pages= 9–17 | language=fr | date=1993 | issn=0002-4619 }}</ref> Over its range as a whole, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the global population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations), and is therefore evaluated as [[Least Concern]].<ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021" />

At the greatest extent of the [[last glacial period]] around 18,000 years ago, southern Europe was characterised by cold open habitats, and the Alpine chough was found as far as south as southern Italy, well outside its current range.<ref name= yalden>{{cite book | last = Yalden | first = Derek |author2=Albarella, Umberto | title = The history of British birds | url = https://archive.org/details/historybritishbi00yald | url-access = limited | year = 2009 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-921751-9|pages = [https://archive.org/details/historybritishbi00yald/page/n50 44]–46 }}</ref> Some of these peripheral prehistoric populations persisted until recently, only to disappear within the last couple of centuries. In the [[Poland|Polish]] [[Tatra Mountains]], where a population had survived since the glacial period, it was not found as a breeding bird after the 19th century.<ref name = tomek>{{cite journal | last1 = Tomek | first1 = Teresa | last2 = Bocheński | first2 = Zygmunt | year = 2005 | title = Weichselian and Holocene bird remains from Komarowa Cave, Central Poland | journal = Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia | volume = 48A | issue = 1–2| pages = 43–65 | doi = 10.3409/173491505783995743 | doi-access = free }}</ref> In Bulgaria, the number of breeding sites fell from 77 between 1950 and 1981 to just 14 in the 1996 to 2006 period, and the number of pairs in the remaining colonies were much smaller. The decline was thought to be due to the loss of former open grasslands which had reverted to scrubby vegetation once extensive cattle grazing ceased.<ref name= Stoyanov>{{cite journal | last= Stoyanov | first= Georgi P. |author2= Ivanova, Teodora|author3= Petrov, Boyan P.|author4= Gueorguieva, Antoaneta | year=2008 | title= Past and present breeding distribution of the alpine chough (''Pyrrhocorax graculus'') in western Stara Planina and western Predbalkan Mts. (Bulgaria)| journal= Acta Zoologica Bulgarica | volume= Suppl. 2|url=http://www.acta-zoologica-bulgarica.eu/downloads/acta-zoologica-bulgarica/2008/supplement-2-119-132.pdf | pages= 119–132}}</ref> Foraging habitat can also be lost to human activities such as the construction of ski resorts and other tourist development on former alpine meadows.<ref name= rolandopatterson >{{cite journal | last= Rolando | first= Antonio |author2=Patterson, Ian James | year=1993 | title= Range and movements of the Alpine Chough ''Pyrrhocorax graculus'' in relation to human developments in the Italian Alps in summer | journal= Journal of Ornithology| volume= 134 | issue=3 | pages=338–344 | doi =10.1007/BF01640430 | bibcode= 1993JOrni.134..338R | s2cid= 21498755 }}</ref> Populations of choughs are stable or increasing in areas where traditional pastoral or other low intensity agriculture persists, but are declining or have become locally extinct where [[intensive farming]] methods have been introduced, such as [[Brittany]], England, south-west Portugal and mainland Scotland.<ref name= pain>{{cite journal| last= Pain | first= Debbie |author2=Dunn, Euan | year=1996 | title= The effects of agricultural intensification upon pastoral birds: lowland wet grasslands (The Netherlands) and transhumance (Spain) | journal= Wader Study Group Bulletin | volume= 81 | pages= 59–65 }}</ref>

Choughs can be locally threatened by the accumulation of [[pesticide]]s and [[heavy metal (chemistry)|heavy metals]] in the mountain soils, heavy rain, shooting and other human disturbances,<ref name= Stoyanov/> but a longer-term threat comes from [[global warming]], which would cause the species' preferred [[Alpine climate]] zone to shift to higher, more restricted areas, or locally to disappear entirely.<ref name= Sekercioglu>{{cite journal | last= Sekercioglu | first= Cagan H | author2= Schneider, Stephen H. | author3= Fay, John P. Loarie | author4= Scott R. | year= 2008 | title= Climate change, elevational range shifts, and bird extinctions | journal= Conservation Biology | volume= 22 | issue= 1 | pages= 140–150 | url= http://ecologia.icb.ufmg.br/~rpcoelho/comunidades/Artigos_2008/ecs08_26.pdf | doi= 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00852.x | pmid= 18254859 | bibcode= 2008ConBi..22..140S | s2cid= 36864195 | access-date= 24 May 2009 | archive-date= 19 July 2015 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150719013130/http://www.ecologia.icb.ufmg.br/~rpcoelho/comunidades/Artigos_2008/ecs08_26.pdf | url-status= dead }}</ref> Fossils of both chough species were found in the mountains of the [[Canary Islands]]. The local extinction of the Alpine chough and the reduced range of red-billed chough in the islands may have been due to climate change or human activity.<ref name= rando>{{cite journal | last= Reyes | first= Juan Carlos Rando| year=2007 | title= New fossil records of choughs genus ''Pyrrhocorax'' in the Canary Islands: hypotheses to explain its extinction and current narrow distribution | journal= Ardeola | volume= 54| issue=2 | pages= 185–195|url=http://www.ardeola.org/files/1315.pdf }}</ref>