This Migratory Bird Is At Risk of Extinction Because People Keep Torturing It and Eating it Whole
Ortolan buntings are seen as a delicacy. The practice of cooking them involves capturing the birds, locking them in cages to fatten them up while they suffer, and then horrifically drowning the trapped creatures in Armagnac.
Ortolan bunting populations have plummeted, declining by a shocking 88% in less than 40 years. Experts agree that hunting the bird for food has played a major role in its decline.
And now, conservationists are worried the bird is at grave risk of extinction. On average, humans hunt 30,000 ortolans each year during their autumn migration.
Authorities have already declared the ortolan bunting endangered in France and several other European countries. French restaurants have even been banned from serving the bird for more than 20 years.
Despite this, many people still participate in this gastronomic tradition of torture. French officials must stop this grotesque practice now, before these little birds are gone forever.