Researchers from The University of Queensland(UQ)have helped design a new app to protect birds at risk of extinction across the world by eliminating language barriers among scientists. The Bird Language Diversity web app will help provide a " birds eye view" , ensuring vital information is shared to improve worldwide conservation.
UQ' s Dr Pablo Negret said the research team analysed more than 10,000 bird species, and found that 1,587 species have 10 languages or more spoken within their distributions. " Scientific information on species can be spread across different languages, but valuable information can go missing or get lost in translation," Dr Negret said. " Without enough sharing of information, this can affect the effectiveness of conservation measures. "
Take the common bird Pochard for example. It is classified as vulnerable species(易危种)and crosses 108 countries in Europe, Asia and north Africa, where a total of 75 official languages are spoken. The survival of the common Pochard, and so many other species, depends on effective cooperation and policy agreements among people with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
This app reveals where threatened and migratory birds exist geographically, in relation to the language spoken in those regions. " We hope the app will encourage researchers and conservation organisations to interact with their peers in other regions, especially if they speak different languages, and be a starting point to allow everyone to work together to protect threatened species," Dr Negret said.
Dr Tatsuya Amano, a researcher and the co-author of the paper, said this work could extend further than bird species. " Any species, whether they' re mammals, amphibians(两栖动物), or plants, with a range crossing multiple countries will be impacted by language barriers, as well as species that migrate across different countries, such as marine species and butterflies," he said. " The significance of the impact of poor communication on such an important issue is evident, and is the reason why we' re working hard to improve science communication across languages. "
