Saturday 03 Aug 2024 |
AFED2022
 
AFEDAnnualReports
Environment and development AL-BIA WAL-TANMIA Leading Arabic Environment Magazine

 
News Details
 
Arctic tern makes longest ever migration – equal to flying twice around the planet 7/6/2016
A tiny bird from the Farne Islands off Northumberland has clocked up the longest migration ever recorded. The Arctic tern’s meandering journey to Antarctica and back saw it clock up 59,650 miles, more than twice the circumference of the planet.
 
The bird, which weighs just 100g, left its breeding grounds last July and flew down the west coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean and arrived in Antarctica in November. Its mammoth trek was recorded by a tiny device attached to its leg, weighing 0.7g - too light to affect its flight.
 
The birds survive the vast journey by dipping down to the sea surface to catch fish and other food as they travel.
 
Like all migratory animals, the birds travel to take advantage of food that is available in particular seasons. Arctic terns perform the longest migrations but another bird, the bar-tailed godwit, completes its marathon from the Arctic to New Zealand in eight days straight, without stopping to feed. Whales undertake the longest mammal migrations and leatherback turtles and some dragonflies also travel over 9,321 miles.
 
More than 2,000 pairs of Arctic terns breed on the Farne Islands, where they feed on sand eels in the sea. The terns are not globally threatened but are thought to be declining in number.
 
Colonies in the Shetlands and Outer Hebrides have been producing far fewer chicks than normal, possibly because the sand eels are moving northwards as climate change warms the oceans.
 
Scientists attached tags to 29 birds and 20 are known to have returned. Some may have died or it may be that the terns do not return every year to the UK to breed. Further analysis of the data from these trackers will allow a better understanding of how the Arctic terns organise their migration and how global climate change may affect their routes.
 
Arctic terns can live for 15 to 30 years, meaning the record-breaking tern could fly as far as 3m kilometres over its lifetime, the rough equivalent of four round trips to the moon.
 
The study was partly funded by the BBC programme Springwatch, which will feature the Arctic tern migration on Tuesday 7 June. (The Guardian)
 
 
 
 
PHOTO: Tagged terns: Chewing gum sized geolocator tagged on the feet of the birds tracks location by recording light levels and time.
CREDIT: Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering/Newcastle University.
 
 
 
 
 
Post your Comment
*Full Name
*Comments
CAPTCHA IMAGE
*Security Code
 
 
Ask An Expert
Boghos Ghougassian
Composting
Videos
 
Recent Publications
Arab Environment 9: Sustainable Development in a Changing Arab Climate
 
ان جميع مقالات ونصوص "البيئة والتنمية" تخضع لرخصة الحقوق الفكرية الخاصة بـ "المنشورات التقنية". يتوجب نسب المقال الى "البيئة والتنمية" . يحظر استخدام النصوص لأية غايات تجارية . يُحظر القيام بأي تعديل أو تحوير أو تغيير في النص الأصلي. لمزيد من المعلومات عن حقوق النشر يرجى الاتصال بادارة المجلة
© All rights reserved, Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia and Technical Publications. Proper reference should appear with any contents used or quoted. No parts of the contents may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means without permission. Use for commercial purposes should be licensed.