Visiting scientist Luciano Caldarón, our own Leo Campagna, and a cadre of collaborators just published a paper showing that the European Turtle Dove shows genetic evidence of a fluctuating demography over time, and is currently undergoing a shrinking phase. The combined effect of demography, habitat destruction and hunting is causing a dramatic decline of this species (for example, up to 97% over 40 years in the UK). The scenario has some similarities to that of the passenger pigeon, and we all know how that one ended… Another finding in this paper is that there are no obvious genomic differences among turtle doves that migration on three different major flyways. Here is a longer blogpost about the study: http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcseriesblog/2016/11/08/understanding-species-demographic-history-avoid-unexpected-extinction/
citation: Calderón L, Campagna L, Wilke T, Lormee H, Eraud C, Dunn J, Rocha G, Zehtindjiey P, Bakaloudis D, Metzeger B, Cesere J, Marx M, Quillfeldt P. Genomic evidence of demographic fluctuations and lack of genetic structure across flyways in a long distance migrant, the European turtle dove. BMC Evolutionary Biology 16: 237. doi: 10.1186/s12862-016-0817-7.
URL for the paper: http://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-016-0817-7