Climate change could restrict habitat availability for Western Ghats birds such as The Nilgiri Wood Pigeon, warn researchers

Climate change could lead to the habitat of Western Ghats endemic species such as the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon (Columba elphinstonii) become extremely limited to a few isolated pockets by the end of the century, a recent research paper warns.

The study, titled “Biogeography and habitat suitability of the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon using MaxEnt”, published in the “Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy” used MaxEnt, a machine-learning method to model habitat suitability for species, and estimates that the Nilgiri Wood Pigeon (NWP) faces a bleak future marked by “sharp declines in high-suitability areas and marked range contractions.”