The Piping Plover is a small shorebird that lives and breeds on beaches across North America. Unfortunately, this species is quickly declining and is now considered either endangered or threatened throughout its entire range. There are several key factors that have led to the Piping Plover’s dramatic population decline over the past century.
Habitat Loss
One of the main reasons Piping Plovers are disappearing is due to extensive loss of their beach nesting and foraging habitats. Piping Plovers rely on wide, flat, open sandy beaches with very little grass or vegetation. They nest right on the sand and their chicks forage along the wrack line. This specific habitat has declined substantially over the last 100 years due to various factors:
- Development of coastal areas for homes, businesses, and infrastructure
- Recreational use of beaches by humans
- Beach erosion and increased severity of storms
- Invasion of non-native beach grasses
Beach habitats continue to disappear year after year, leaving Piping Plovers with fewer and fewer places to safely nest and raise their chicks. For example, in 1986 it was estimated there were 2,489 acres of suitable nesting habitat for Piping Plovers in New Jersey. By 1998, this number had plummeted to only 1,830 acres. This represents a 26% loss of nesting habitat in just over a decade.
Increased Predators
Another major factor in the decline of Piping Plovers is increased predation on eggs, chicks, and even adults. Common predators of Piping Plovers include foxes, raccoons, skunks, gulls, crows, and cats. As human development expands into coastal areas, many of these predators end up occupying Piping Plover habitats. Predators are drawn to beaches by food scraps, trash, and campsites left behind by beachgoers. The predators then opportunistically eat Piping Plover eggs and chicks.
One study in Cape Cod, Massachusetts found 87% of Piping Plover nests were lost to predation. An analysis across the Great Plains found predation accounted for 54% of Piping Plover nest losses. It is clear that predation has had a devastating impact on Piping Plover reproductive success and survival.
Year | # Nests Lost to Predators | % Nests Lost to Predators |
---|---|---|
2000 | 52 | 74% |
2001 | 63 | 87% |
2002 | 45 | 79% |
Table 1. Piping Plover nest losses to predators in Cape Cod, MA from 2000-2002. From Melvin et al. (1991).
Human Disturbance
There are now millions of people using beaches across North America every year for recreation. All of this human activity on beaches interferes with Piping Plovers in a few key ways:
- Trampling of nests – People, pets, and vehicles crush eggs and chicks
- Disturbance of foraging birds – Prevents plovers from efficiently feeding
- Nest abandonment – Adults flushed off nests frequently will abandon eggs
- Habitat degradation – Trash, beach fires, etc. reduce habitat quality
Studies have found that Piping Plovers have much lower reproductive success on public beaches open to recreation compared to protected beach habitats. One study in Ontario found plovers nesting on a public beach had just 0.36 chicks survive per pair, while plovers nesting on a protected beach had 1.5 chicks survive per pair.
Even well-meaning beachgoers who want to help protect Piping Plovers can end up disturbing the birds unintentionally. Management strategies like symbolic fencing, signage, and beach closures are all necessary to minimize human recreation impacts on sensitive nesting and foraging areas.
Climate Change
Climate change poses a substantial long-term threat to Piping Plovers. Rising sea levels are expected to inundate and eliminate many low-elevation beach habitats. Increased frequency and severity of storms will also accelerate beach erosion and habitat loss. Piping Plovers currently rely on a very narrow band of beach habitats that may largely disappear within the next century.
In addition, climate change is allowing more temperate species to encroach northward into Piping Plover breeding range. Predators like red foxes, fish crows, and coyotes are expanding their ranges northward as winters become milder. This will expose Piping Plover populations to heavier predation pressure.
Climate change will also alter precipitation patterns and sand temperatures, potentially reducing prey populations and making beach habitats less hospitable for nesting and chick rearing. Piping plovers may be unable to shift their breeding range further northward due to lack of suitable sandy beach habitats.
Recovery Efforts
There have been some positive efforts made to try and recover Piping Plover populations. These include:
- Habitat protection and restoration of nesting beaches
- Restriction of human recreation and dogs from nesting areas
- Predator control methods like trapping and lethal removal
- Installation of symbolic fencing and signage around nests
- Active monitoring and management of breeding sites
- Captive rearing of abandoned eggs/chicks
- Public education programs to gain support for conservation
These strategies have achieved moderate success in boosting Piping Plover numbers in some regions, especially on protected Federal and State lands. However, plover populations continue to decline overall, indicating a need to expand the scale and breadth of recovery efforts.
Outlook
If current trends continue, the Piping Plover will likely disappear entirely from significant portions of its current breeding range within the next 50-100 years. Only sites under intensive habitat management may still support plover populations a century from now. This will likely leave Piping Plovers functionally extinct over 98% of their historic range in North America.
Preventing this dire outcome will require aggressive new habitat protections, predator control, captive breeding efforts, and managing beaches solely for Piping Plover conservation rather than human recreation. Even then, climate change impacts may overwhelm most recovery actions. Substantial funding commitments from governments and support from coastal communities will be essential to give Piping Plovers a fighting chance at survival.
Conclusion
In summary, Piping Plovers are rapidly declining due to habitat loss, increased predation, human disturbance, and climate change. Recovery efforts have been unable to halt population declines so far. Without dramatic new interventions and funding for conservation, this iconic shorebird will likely be extirpated across most or all of its current breeding range within decades. Preventing the extinction of Piping Plovers will require making their protection and management a top conservation priority across North America.