tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/migrating-birds-27364/articlesmigrating birds – The Conversation2021-12-30T11:53:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1737002021-12-30T11:53:36Z2021-12-30T11:53:36ZNature’s GPS: how animals use the natural world to perform extraordinary feats of navigation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438204/original/file-20211217-21-1s3kl8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1439%2C959&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tiny birds like robins are able to use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1358560">Pxhere</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At Christmas, thousands of greetings cards feature the iconic winter plumage of the <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/robin/">robin</a>. But not all the robins you might find in your backyard are permanent natives to your country. In the UK, for example, some will have migrated from <a href="https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a29662593/robin-migration-tracked/">Germany and Russia</a>, and like millions of other animals all over the world, will return back to their breeding grounds next spring. This <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUKh0fr1Od8">ebb and flow</a> of birds, mammals, fish and insects is a key part of the Earth’s biodiversity.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/as-far-as-the-moon-and-back-twice-heres-a-look-at-the-most-extraordinary-journeys-migrating-birds-make-168904">Migration</a> is a challenging strategy. For small animals like songbirds to be able to return from Africa or southern Europe to areas where they can successfully breed, they need to be able to repeatedly navigate to precisely the same place. How they do this is a question that has vexed scientists for over 60 years. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982217308825">recent evidence</a> is shedding light on how tiny animals – with correspondingly <a href="https://www.treehugger.com/how-birds-are-so-smart-despite-small-brains-4864428">tiny brains</a> – can cross mountains, oceans and deserts without getting lost. </p>
<p>It seems that birds use <a href="https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FR001081%2F1">external cues</a> available in their environment, like the stars and the Earth’s magnetic field, to provide them with the equivalent of a map and a compass. But how they combine these cues is only now starting to become clear. </p>
<p>Our research group’s <a href="https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/224/22/jeb243337/273480">recent paper</a> focuses on how <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/reed-warbler/">reed warblers</a>, a small Eurasian songbird, navigate. First, we disrupted the birds’ ability to sense the Earth’s <a href="https://web.ua.es/docivis/magnet/earths_magnetic_field2.html">magnetic field</a> by attaching a small magnet to their forehead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A reed warbler on reeds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438214/original/file-20211217-17-7od9qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The reed warbler is one of many birds that use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reed_Warbler_on_reeds_by_Gary_Tate.jpg">Gary Tate/Wikimedia</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>We found that when we also obscured their view of the stars, the birds were unable to find the right direction to migrate in. Once their view of the stars was returned, however, they were able to find their way again. </p>
<p>Like a careful engineer, the evolutionary process of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/natural-selection">natural selection</a> has built in a fail-safe to birds’ navigation systems, making sure there are backup orientation devices available for when the skies are cloudy. </p>
<h2>Magnetic fields</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00116-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982221001160%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">Another study</a> by our research group has shown how these same reed warblers can work out exactly where they are when migrating, as well as how they deal with being blown off course or needing to detour around barriers like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-climate-change-ruining-skiing-in-the-alps-52886">Alps</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A diagram of an Emlen funnel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438206/original/file-20211217-15-18s0chj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is an example of a funnel used to test birds’ orientation. Birds’ feet leave ink marks on the funnel paper when taking off, indicating their flight direction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emlen_funnel#/media/File:EmlenFunnel.svg">L Shyamal/Wikipedia</a></span>
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<p>We put reed warblers in an artificial magnetic field that matched the natural magnetic field of a place far northwest of the birds’ migration route. We then tested their sense of direction in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZWonlJzSQ&ab_channel=CAnMoveLund">orientation cage</a> – a small funnel 30cm in diameter that allows us to measure the direction a bird wants to take off in by analysing where it hops inside the cage.</p>
<p>We found that when placed in this artificial field, birds changed their orientation from southeast to southwest, suggesting they had recognised the magnetic field signature as foreign and were trying to get back to their route. </p>
<p>We call this technique “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215009549">virtual displacement</a>”, as the bird itself never actually leaves the site where it’s captured for testing. It’s become a new tool for understanding how animals sense and use the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation.</p>
<p>What was even more remarkable was that the artificial magnetic field we created is not one that the birds would have previously encountered on their migrations. That means they weren’t reacting to magnetic field cues that they had learned. Instead, the birds had used their instinctive awareness of how the Earth’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/earths-magnetic-field-may-change-faster-than-we-thought-new-research-142752">magnetic field</a> changes with distance to work out that they were northwest of their route. Not bad for those tiny bird brains.</p>
<p>Clearly, both the starfield and the magnetic field are important cues for birds to migrate. But human activity has the potential to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-moon-and-stars-are-a-compass-for-nocturnal-animals-but-light-pollution-is-leading-them-astray-142301">disrupt</a> these. <a href="https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/">Artificial light</a> at night from cities reduces visibility of the stars and moon. In other animals, such as <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00833-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982221008332%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">dung beetles</a> and <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30641-2">sandhoppers</a>, this has been shown to negatively affect navigation abilities.</p>
<p>What’s more, artificial electromagnetic signals – such as those coming from radio towers or even from electric currents that power everyday devices such as kettles – can also <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13290">confuse</a> birds’ ability to detect the natural magnetic field. We may be giving birds a double dose of pollution that even their fail-safe systems can’t overcome. </p>
<p>We don’t fully understand how these pollutants affect migratory birds yet, but as we come to understand more about <a href="https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/210/21/3697/17194/Magnetic-maps-in-animals-nature-s-GPS">nature’s GPS</a>, it’s vital to understand the risks human activity poses to this remarkable system of navigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Holland receives funding from BBSRC and Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Migrating birds use both their view of the stars and their internal magnetic compasses to find their way over thousands of miles.Richard Holland, Professor of Animal Behaviour, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1659642021-08-30T03:00:07Z2021-08-30T03:00:07ZThis bird’s stamina is remarkable: it flies non-stop for 5 days from Japan to Australia, but now its habitat is under threat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416941/original/file-20210819-17-b4kqzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4950%2C2460&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Bassett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine having to fly non-stop for five days over thousands of kilometres of ocean for your survival. That’s what the Latham’s Snipe shorebird does twice a year, for every year of its life. </p>
<p>This migratory shorebird, similar in size to a blackbird, completes this gruelling migration to warmer climes, where it prepares itself for its return flight and the next breeding season. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, their wetland habitat is now being lost to development and other pressures, putting this tough little bird at risk. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Latham's Snipe flies past." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416945/original/file-20210819-17-mcm1k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Latham’s Snipe arrives at its destination severely malnourished and spends the Australian summer months build up its strength and body fat to complete its long return flight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Sinnott/instagram.com/birdsbydave/</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/be-still-my-beating-wings-hunters-kill-migrating-birds-on-their-10-000km-journey-to-australia-138382">Be still, my beating wings: hunters kill migrating birds on their 10,000km journey to Australia</a>
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<h2>A feat of incredible endurance</h2>
<p>Latham’s Snipe breeds in northern Japan and parts of eastern Russia during May-July and spends its non-breeding season (September to March) along Australia’s eastern coast.</p>
<p>Like other migratory shorebirds, it has incredible endurance, undertaking a non-stop, over-ocean flight between its breeding and non-breeding grounds. </p>
<p>It arrives at its destination severely malnourished and spends the Australian summer months building up its strength and body fat to complete its long return flight.</p>
<p>Unlike many other migratory shorebird species in Australia, you won’t find Latham’s Snipe in large flocks enjoying picturesque estuaries and bays. Instead, it hides away in thickly vegetated wetlands during the day to avoid local predators. </p>
<p>Their characteristic brown mottled feathers help them hide in wetlands.</p>
<p>Large eyes high on their heads allow them to see far and wide. Their exceptional eyesight helps them constantly scan for dangers at night, when they forage for food in open wet and muddy areas.</p>
<p>Latham’s Snipe is the ultimate sun-seeker. It breeds in the northern hemisphere when the snows have melted and the weather is warm, then returns to the southern hemisphere to take advantage of spring rains, warmer weather and food-rich wetlands.</p>
<p>It spends its entire time in Australia feeding, resting and growing new flight feathers in preparation for the long haul back to Japan in autumn.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416946/original/file-20210819-13-4rzau6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Latham’s Snipe’s characteristic brown mottled feathers help it hide in wetlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Lethlean</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>No food and nowhere to rest</h2>
<p>Latham’s Snipe, formerly known as the Japanese Snipe, was once a popular game bird. Hunting and wetland loss during the 20th century have contributed to a decline in Latham’s Snipe in south-eastern Australia.</p>
<p>The signing of the Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement in 1981 has stopped snipe hunting in both countries. However, their wetland habitat continues to be lost due to land development and drying of wetlands. </p>
<p>Imagine flying for five days straight, arriving at your destination emaciated and exhausted, only to find your habitat has disappeared. No food and nowhere to rest. This is the crisis facing Latham’s Snipe and many other migratory shorebird species. </p>
<h2>No formal protection for many of its wetlands</h2>
<p>Under the Australian government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, any grouping of 18 or more snipe at a wetland site is considered nationally important. Unfortunately, however, development on snipe habitat still occurs.</p>
<p>In 2014 — triggered by a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2014/02/24/3950997.htm">plan</a> to allow housing construction on an important snipe wetland area — a team of passionate researchers and citizen scientists banded together to initiate a <a href="https://lathamssnipeproject.wordpress.com/news/">monitoring program of Latham’s Snipe</a> in south-west Victoria.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1427784557953093644"}"></div></p>
<p>After the first year of the monitoring, the Latham’s Snipe Project expanded to other parts of the country with help from a large number of dedicated volunteers and professionals. </p>
<p>The story from this monitoring is still unfolding but two clear patterns are emerging: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Latham’s Snipe often congregate in urban wetlands; and </p></li>
<li><p>the majority of these important wetlands have no formal protection from development or disturbance. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>7,000km, non-stop, in three days</h2>
<p>Between 2016 and 2020, the Latham’s Snipe Project started tagging snipe with small electronic devices to try and learn about their migratory routes. </p>
<p>The team uncovered an amazing migration from a female snipe captured in Port Fairy. She left her breeding grounds in northern Japan and flew directly to south-east Queensland in three days, a non-stop flight of around 7,000km. A trip that might normally take around five days, this incredible individual did in three.</p>
<p>This is one of the fastest bird migrations on record and highlights how demanding these over-ocean migrations are. It also shines the spotlight on the critical importance of good quality wetland habitat when the snipe return to Australia.</p>
<p>Urban development continues to threaten Latham’s Snipe habitats. Several snipe sites in eastern Australia are at risk from housing developments and large infrastructure projects.</p>
<p>However, a different way of doing things is possible.</p>
<p>Eco-friendly developments like the Cape Paterson Ecovillage in Victoria provide hope. Here, researchers and citizen scientists have worked with the developer to help design conservation areas within the development to protect and restore wetlands for snipe. </p>
<p>Such progress is heartening, but a critically important next step is to make changes to local planning schemes that explicitly recognise wetlands for Latham’s Snipe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416947/original/file-20210819-21-aezjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Imagine flying for five days straight, arriving at your destination emaciated and exhausted, only to find your habitat has disappeared.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Lethlean</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-use-massive-magnetic-maps-to-migrate-and-some-could-cover-the-whole-world-154992">Birds use massive magnetic maps to migrate – and some could cover the whole world</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Birgita Hansen has received funding in the past from the Victorian and ACT state governments and through Glenelg Hopkins CMA.
</span></em></p>Imagine flying for five days straight, arriving at your destination emaciated and exhausted, only to find your habitat has disappeared. Such is the plight of the Latham’s Snipe.Birgita Hansen, Senior Research Fellow, Federation University and Better Data for Better Decisions Constellation Leader, Food Agility CRC, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874382018-01-02T20:51:07Z2018-01-02T20:51:07ZWhy we shouldn’t be too quick to blame migratory animals for global disease<p>Have you ever got on a flight and the person next to you started sneezing? With <a href="https://garfors.com/2014/06/100000-flights-day-html/">37 million</a> scheduled flights transporting people around the world each year, you might think that the viruses and other germs carried by travellers would be getting a free ride to new pastures, infecting people as they go.</p>
<p>Yet pathogenic microbes are surprisingly bad at expanding their range by <a href="http://www.laboratory-journal.com/news/scientific-news/study-shows-infectious-diseases-resist-globalisation">hitching rides on planes</a>. Microbes find it difficult to thrive when taken out of their ecological comfort zone; Bali might just be a tad too hot for a Tasmanian parasite to handle.</p>
<p>But humans aren’t the only species to go global with their parasites. Billions of animals have been flying, swimming and running around the globe every year on their seasonal migrations, long before the age of the aeroplane. The question is, are they picking up new pathogens on their journeys? And if they are, are they transporting them across the world?</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tale-of-three-mosquitoes-how-a-warming-world-could-spread-disease-43471">A tale of three mosquitoes: how a warming world could spread disease</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Migratory animals are the usual suspects for disease spread</h2>
<p>With the rate of zoonotic diseases (pathogens that jump from animals to humans) <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/2016/06/rise-and-rise-zoonotic-diseases-why-are-animals-more-likely-ever-make-us-ill">on the rise</a>, migratory animals have been under increasing suspicion of aiding the spread of devastating diseases such as <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161013152742.htm">bird flu</a>, <a href="https://globallymealliance.org/lyme-disease-spread-migratory-birds/">Lyme disease</a>, and even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/23/ebola-outbreak-blamed-on-fruit-bats-africa">Ebola</a>.</p>
<p>These suspicions are bad for migrating animals, because they are often <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-birdflu-philippines/philippines-warns-against-killing-of-migratory-birds-amid-avian-flu-outbreak-idUSKCN1AT077">killed in large numbers</a> when considered a disease threat. They are also bad for humans, because blaming animals may obscure other important factors in disease spread, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468042717300015">such as animal trade</a>. So what’s going on?</p>
<p>Despite the logical link between animal migration and the spread of their pathogens, there is in fact surprisingly little direct evidence that migrants frequently spread pathogens long distances. </p>
<p>This is because migratory animals are notoriously hard for scientists to track. Their movements make them difficult to test for infections over the vast areas that they occupy.</p>
<p>But other theories exist that explain the lack of direct evidence for migrants spreading pathogens. One is that, unlike humans who just have to jump on a plane, migratory animals must work exceptionally hard to travel. Flying from Australia to Siberia is no easy feat for a tiny migratory bird, nor is swimming between the poles for giant whales. Human athletes are <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-running-infections-idUSKBN18122T">less likely to finish a race</a> if battling infections, and likewise, migrant animals may have to be at the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/01/21/long-distance-migration-may-help-reduce-infectious-disease-risks-for-many-animal-species">peak of health</a> if they are to survive such gruelling journeys. Sick travellers may <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/331/6015/296">succumb to infection</a> before they, or their parasitic hitchhikers, reach their final destination. </p>
<p>Put simply, if a sick animal can’t migrate, then neither can its parasites. </p>
<p>On the other hand, migrants have been doing this for millennia. It is possible they have adapted to such challenges, keeping pace in the evolutionary arms race against pathogens and able to migrate even while infected. In this case, pathogens may be more successful at spreading around the world on the backs of their hosts. But which theory does the evidence support?</p>
<h2>Sick animals can still spread disease</h2>
<p>To try and get to the bottom of this question, we identified as many studies testing this hypothesis as we could, extracted their data, and combined them to look for any overarching patterns.</p>
<p>We found that infected migrants across species definitely <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12766/full">felt the cost</a> of being sick: they tended to be in poorer condition, didn’t travel as far, migrated later, and had lower chances of survival. However, infection affected these traits differently. Movement was hit hardest by infection, but survival was only weakly impacted. Infected migrants may not die as they migrate, but perhaps they restrict long-distance movements to save energy.</p>
<p>So pathogens seem to pose some costs on their migratory hosts, which would reduce the chances of migrants spreading pathogens, but perhaps not enough of a cost to eliminate the risk completely. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-marsupials-once-migrated-across-an-australian-ice-age-landscape-84762">Giant marsupials once migrated across an Australian Ice Age landscape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But an important piece of the puzzle is still missing. In humans, travelling increases our risk of getting ill because we come into contact with new germs that our immune system has never encountered before. Are migrants also more susceptible to unfamiliar microbes as they travel to new locations, or have they adapted to this as well?</p>
<h2>Guts of migrants resistant to microbial invasion</h2>
<p>To investigate the susceptibility of migrants, we went in a different direction and decided to look at the gut bacteria of migratory shorebirds – grey, unassuming birds that forage on beaches or near water, and that undergo some of the <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/276/1656/447.short">longest</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep38154?WT.feed_name=subjects_animal-migration">fastest</a> migrations in the animal kingdom. </p>
<p>Most animals have hundreds of bacterial species living in their guts, which help break down nutrients and fight off potential pathogens. Every new microbe you ingest can only colonise your gut if the environmental conditions are to its liking, and competition with current residents isn’t too high. In some cases, it may thrive so much it becomes an infection.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200433/original/file-20171221-15864-1ugbyyh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Red-necked stint is highly exposed to sediment microbes as it forages for the microscopic invertebrates that fuel its vast migrations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found the migratory shorebirds we studied were exceptionally good at <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14326/full">resisting invasion from ingested microbes</a>, even after <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12784/full">flying thousands of kilometres</a> and putting their gut under extreme physiological strain. Birds that had just returned from migration (during which they stopped in many places in China, Japan, and South East Asia), didn’t carry any more species of bacteria than those that had stayed around the same location for a year.</p>
<p>Although these results need to be tested in other migratory species, our research suggests that, like human air traffic, pathogens might not get such an easy ride on their migratory hosts as we might assume. There is no doubt that migrants are involved in pathogen dispersal to some degree, but there is increasing evidence that we shouldn’t jump the gun when it comes to blaming migrants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bethany J Hoye receives funding from the University of Wollongong, Deakin University, the Australian Research Council, and several non-profit conservation organisations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcel Klaassen has received an ARC Discovery Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Risely does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Migratory animals are often blamed for the global spread of disease. However, recent research indicates they may not be the primary culprit.Alice Risely, PhD candidate in Ecology, Deakin UniversityBethany J Hoye, Lecturer in Animal Ecology, University of WollongongMarcel Klaassen, Alfred Deakin Professor and Chair in Ecology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/808202017-07-24T19:40:07Z2017-07-24T19:40:07ZGoldfinches need protection – migrating songbirds might be vanishing from North Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179170/original/file-20170721-18152-169fz43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around 2.1 billion migratory birds travel back and forth every year between breeding areas in Europe and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.17309.x/full">wintering ground in Africa</a>. The migration, often referred to as Afro-Plearactic <a href="http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/programme-additional-info/migratory-birds-and-flyways">(Black Sea/Mediterranean)</a>, is one of the most important in the <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-migration-ecology-of-birds/newton/978-0-12-517367-4">world</a>. But the number of birds making the journey has been in <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6312/547">severe decline</a> over the past few decades. </p>
<p>Bird conservationists believe that illegal hunting as well as bird snatching in the Mediterranean are the main reasons for the decline. Some estimates suggest that as many as 36 million migratory birds are killed <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bird-conservation-international/article/preliminary-assessment-of-the-scope-and-scale-of-illegal-killing-and-taking-of-birds-in-the-mediterranean/34A06A94874DB94BE2BBACC4F96C3B5F">every year</a>. Birds are hunted for food and sport and caught to be kept as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bird-conservation-international/article/preliminary-assessment-of-the-scope-and-scale-of-illegal-killing-and-taking-of-birds-in-the-mediterranean/34A06A94874DB94BE2BBACC4F96C3B5F">pets</a>. </p>
<p>To help us understand the problem, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-01103-w">we studied</a> the European goldfinch (<em>Carduelis carduelia</em>) in the western Maghreb – Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco – where one of the 14 subspecies, (<em>C. c. parva</em>), <a href="http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/finches/">exists</a>.</p>
<p>The European goldfinch, with its wonderful colouration and excellent melodic singing, is by far the favourite pet for people living in the western Maghreb where it’s been part of the local culture for centuries. There is also demand for them in Europe.</p>
<p>We set out to find out in which areas goldfinches were prevalent in the 1990s, and whether they’re still there now. We did a survey of poachers in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Our analysis showed that the distribution range had retracted by 57%. Most of the extinctions were recorded in the eastern part of the region – in Tunisia and Algeria.</p>
<p>Such rapid extinction has rarely been seen in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12537/abstract">wild songbirds</a>, and unless urgent conservation actions are established there’s a possibility they will disappear completely.</p>
<h2>In decline</h2>
<p>The European goldfinch is ubiquitous in the region. We estimate that there are about 6 million domestic goldfinches in Algeria and probably around 15 million in western Maghreb. </p>
<p>But these numbers are much lower, and less evenly spread out, than they were a quarter of a century ago.</p>
<p>Large scale poaching started in the early <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-01103-w">1990s</a>. Poaching goldfinch became so frequent and widespread that the kids took it up as a hobby and adults as a part-time or even full job. The species was poached and sold in the weekly flea markets with the price of a sweet. The birds were so abundant that locals had no expectations that it would go extinct.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179173/original/file-20170721-18137-1sodmdi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">European Goldfinch species are poached and sold in flea markets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two decades later, the species disappeared in several localities where it used to thrive like regions in Northeast Algeria: Souk Ahras, Guelma and Annaba.</p>
<p>The main reason seems to be the unsustainable exploitation of the birds in the wild. We found that while goldfinches are kept in many homes, only 3% of 2721 owners we surveyed carried out in-cage breeding. </p>
<p>The economic value of the species has gone up so much that it’s triggered a social trend – owning a goldfinch is now a matter of prestige. Prices have increased massively during the past <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-01103-w">26 years</a>. On average, the price went from 1$ in the early 90s to 100$ in the last five years. That’s a third of the average person’s monthly income. There’s even an anecdote that a goldfinch that sang exceptionally beautifully was exchanged for a car. </p>
<p>There is evidence that a trading network has been established in the region. Due to the scarcity of goldfinches in Tunisia and Algeria, poachers have started to export the birds in their thousands from <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian-weekly/20160610/281968901953226">Morocco</a>. </p>
<p>There have also been instances where local goldfinches have been exported illegally to Europe, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/organised-crime-finds-a-new-type-of-contraband-goldfinches-a7016676.html">particuarly France and Belgium</a>. They fetch €1000 euros because there’s a view that that the North African subspecies of goldfinch sing better than the European subspecies.</p>
<h2>The major threats</h2>
<p>There are two threats that conservation authorities should be worried about. </p>
<p>The first is that most of the poachers we interviewed used mist nets, a net made of fine threads and placed vertically like a volleyball net to capture birds. Using mist nets means that other species, known as by-catches, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v535/n7610/full/535037a.html">are also caught</a>. This is a major threat to a range of bird species because the Western Maghreb is an important stop-over site for <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00212210.1995.10688808">migrating birds from Europe</a>.</p>
<p>In Northeast Algeria we recorded 16 species that had been caught as by-catch, of which five were migratory. Since the use of mist nets is widespread in western Maghreb, we expect that the number of species intercepted every year is likely to be much higher. </p>
<p>The use of mist nets on a greater scale has been recorded in neighbouring countries such as <a href="http://www.illegalbirdkilling.aewa.info/bird_trapping">Libya and Egypt</a> or even <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/slaughter-of-the-song-birds-1.19222">Cyprus</a> where millions of birds are intercepted every year. Although the fate of those species caught in by-catches is still unknown (released, eaten or traded), studies have shown that mist nets can cause <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2011.00123.x/abstract">injuries and mortality</a>.</p>
<p>The second major problem is that the array of wild bird species for sale in markets in the region seems to be on the rise. For example, we found one migratory species, the Eurasian siskin, regularly sold in the market in Northeast Algeria.</p>
<p>The use of mist nets might be the reason for this. Poachers are selling other species as substitutes for the rare and expensive goldfinch. </p>
<h2>What can be done</h2>
<p>Authorities should intervene immediately to stop the illegal poaching. Failure to do so will result in the continued exploitation of both goldfinches as well as other local and migratory songbirds. </p>
<p>And local people need to be sensitised to the ecological consequences of species extinction and its potential effects on the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/101/52/18042.full">local economy and human health</a>. </p>
<p>Artificial breeding should also be encouraged. This offers a self-sustaining solution because goldfinches have large clutch sizes, high brood production as well as long lifespans.</p>
<p>The rapid extinction of several populations of the goldfinch in the western Maghreb must be a lesson for people and conservation authorities across the world – even abundant species can disappear over a short period of time from over exploitation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rassim Khelifa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The European goldfinch, with its wonderful coloration and melodic singing, is a favoured pet for people living in the western Maghreb. But continued poaching is putting the species in danger.Rassim Khelifa, Ph.D. Student Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of ZurichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720782017-03-15T03:59:23Z2017-03-15T03:59:23ZContested spaces: saving nature when our beaches have gone to the dogs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160086/original/image-20170308-24179-dflmw8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Early in the morning and late in the evening is when shorebirds escape disturbance on the beaches on which their survival depends.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/seagulls-gulls-shore-birds-beach-241953/">Arnuchulo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the ninth article in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/contested-spaces-36316">Contested Spaces</a> series. These pieces look at the conflicting uses, expectations and norms that people bring to public spaces, the clashes that result and how we can resolve these.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>There’s no doubt about it, Australians love the beach. And why not? Being outdoors <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep28551">makes us happy</a>, and all <a href="https://theconversation.com/contested-spaces-we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches-72265">beaches are public places</a> in Australia.</p>
<p>Head to a beach like Bondi on Christmas Day and you’ll share that space with more than 40,000 people. But we aren’t just jostling with each other for coveted beach space. Scuttling, waddling, hopping or flying away from beachgoers all around Australia are crabs, shorebirds, baby turtles, crocodiles, fairy penguins and even dingoes. </p>
<p>Beaches are home to an incredible array of animals, and sharing this busy space with people is critical to their survival. But, if we find it hard to share our beaches <a href="https://theconversation.com/contested-spaces-we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches-72265">with each other</a>, how can we possibly find space for nature on our beaches? </p>
<h2>Beach birds</h2>
<p>Here’s a classic example of how hard it is to share our beaches with nature. Head to a busy beach at dawn, before the crowds arrive, and you will most likely see a number of small birds darting about. </p>
<p>You may recognise them from the short movie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGsoNm86nD8">Piper</a> – they are shorebirds. As the day progresses, swimmers, kite surfers, dog walkers, horse riders, 4x4s and children descend upon the beach en masse, unwittingly disturbing the shorebirds.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e7v2zDZBf6g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">We share beaches with an extraordinary array of life, including many shorebirds.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike seabirds, shorebirds do not spend their life at sea. Instead, they specialise on the beach: foraging for their invertebrate prey, avoiding waves, or resting. </p>
<p>However, shorebird numbers in Australia are <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/MU/MU15056">declining very rapidly</a>. Several species are officially listed as nationally threatened, such as the critically endangered <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=847">Eastern Curlew</a>.</p>
<p>There are few places you can let your dog run for as long and as far as it pleases, which is one of the reasons beaches appeal to dog owners. But this disturbance results in heavy costs to the birds as they expend energy taking flight and cannot return to favourable feeding areas. Repeated disturbance can cause temporary or permanent abandonment of suitable habitat. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160088/original/image-20170308-24226-avq9ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s largest shorebirds, Eastern Curlews are critically endangered – and Australia is home to about 75% of them over summer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhobern/15847904525/in/photolist-aEowdB-5fqeJk-D2MpGg-naot7x-diwQ95-dKdPZo-nao9fX-qDajny-gDs6MR-h4TcLF-pS1mit-q9qDTc-Ds1wFZ-CCToKr-bmFewo">Donald Hobern/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The fascinating thing about many of these shorebirds is that they are migratory. Beachgoers in Korea, China, Indonesia or New Zealand could observe the same individual bird that we have seen in Australia. </p>
<p>Yet these journeys come at a cost. Shorebirds must undertake gruelling flights of up to 16,000 kilometres twice a year to get from their breeding grounds in Siberia and Alaska to their feeding grounds in Australia and New Zealand. In their pursuit of an endless summer, they arrive in Australia severely weakened by their travels. They must almost double their body weight before they can migrate again.</p>
<p>And these birds must contend with significant daily disruption on their feeding grounds. A <a href="onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12662/abstract">recent study in Queensland</a> found an average of 174 people and 72 dogs were present at any one time on the foreshore of Moreton Bay, along Brisbane’s coastline. And 84% of dogs were off the leash – an off-leash dog was sighted every 700 metres – in potential contravention of <a href="https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/moreton-bay/about.html">regulations on dog control</a>. </p>
<h2>Managing the menagerie</h2>
<p>One conservation approach is to set up nature reserves. This involves trying to keep people out of large areas of the coastal zone to provide a home for nature. Yet this rarely works in practice on beaches, where there are so many overlapping jurisdictions (for example, councils often don’t control the lower areas of the intertidal zone) that <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/mu/MU15046">protection is rarely joined up</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160091/original/image-20170309-24182-1akelhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The beach-nesting Hooded Plover is unique to Australia where it is listed as vulnerable (and critically endangered in NSW).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hooded_Plover_-_Phillip_Is_-_Victoria.jpg">Francesco Veronesi/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160078/original/image-20170308-24201-13o3hf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hooded_Plover_eggs444.jpg">Benjamint444/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12662/abstract">our work</a> at the University of Queensland shows we don’t need conservation reserves in which people are kept out. Quite the reverse. We should be much bolder in opening up areas that are specifically designated as dog off-leash zones, in places where demand for recreation is high.</p>
<p>In the case of Moreton Bay, 97% of foraging migratory shorebirds could be protected from disturbance simply by designating five areas as off-leash recreation zones. Currently, dogs must be kept under close control throughout the intertidal areas of Moreton Bay.</p>
<p>By zoning our beaches carefully, the science tells us that the most intense recreational activities can be located away from critical areas for nature. And there’s no reason why this logic couldn’t be extended to creating peaceful zones for beach users who prefer a quiet day out.</p>
<p>By approaching the problem scientifically, we can meet recreational demand as well as protect nature. Proper enforcement of the boundaries between zones is needed. Such enforcement is effective when carried out in the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12606/abstract">right places at the right time</a>.</p>
<p>We believe that keeping people and their dogs off beaches to protect nature is neither desirable nor effective. It sends totally the wrong message – successful conservation is about living alongside nature, not separating ourselves from it. </p>
<p>Conservationists and recreationists should be natural allies, both working to safeguard our beautiful coasts. The key is to find ways that people and nature can co-exist on beaches.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can find other pieces published in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/contested-spaces-36316">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeleine Stigner received funding for the work referred to in this article from Birds Queensland and the Queensland Wader Study Group Nigel Roberts Student Research Fund. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kiran Dhanjal-Adams received funding for the work referred to in this article from the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Decisions, the Australian Research Council, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, the Queensland Wader Study Group, the Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd, the Goodman Foundation and Birdlife Australia’s Stuart Leslie Award. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Fuller received funding for the work referred to in this article from the National Environmental Science Programme's Threatened Species Recovery Hub, the Australian Research Council, Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, the Queensland Wader Study Group, the Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd, the Goodman Foundation and Birdlife Australia’s Stuart Leslie Award.</span></em></p>We aren’t just jostling with each other for beach space. Scuttling, waddling, hopping or flying away from beachgoers all around Australia, wildlife struggles to survive the daily disturbances.Madeleine Stigner, Research assistant, The University of QueenslandKiran Dhanjal-Adams, Research Associate Ecological Modeller, UK Centre for Ecology & HydrologyRichard Fuller, Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Conservation, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/589432016-05-11T14:03:30Z2016-05-11T14:03:30ZSights are set on understanding bird movements across Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121864/original/image-20160510-20731-7hkf2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Movements of insectivorous species that migrate, like the cuckoo, may be influenced by the migration of prey insect groups.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A great deal of attention has been given to how, why and where birds migrate between continents. But the complexities of migratory movements restricted to one continental land mass have largely been overlooked.</p>
<p>Efforts are being stepped up to harmonise conservation action between and within continents. In 2011 the United Nation (UN) <a href="http://www.cms.int/en">Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals</a> passed a <a href="http://www.cms.int/en/document/improving-conservation-status-migratory-landbirds-african-eurasian-region">resolution</a> to develop an action plan for the conservation and protection of migratory landbirds in the African-Eurasian flyways region. This was in response to significant declines in global populations of a number of migratory landbirds.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12118/abstract">review</a> of migratory bird species that breed in Europe and winter in Africa highlight a decline between the 1960s and early 1980s of species wintering in the Sahel, a semiarid region extending from Senegal eastward to Sudan. There was also a second major decline after the 1980s of species wintering in forest zones. While there is some knowledge about the drivers of these declines in Europe, there is less information for Africa.</p>
<h2>Agreement on what needs to be done</h2>
<p>Action on the UN resolution, involving governments and key nongovernmental organisations like <a href="http://www.birdlife.org/africa/projects/african-eurasian-migratory-landbirds-action-plan-aemlap">BirdLife International</a>, led to the creation of a working group to focus on African-Eurasian migratory landbirds. The group developed an <a href="http://www.cms.int/en/document/african-eurasian-migratory-landbirds-action-plan-aemlap-1">action plan</a> detailing specific recommendations that address particular threats. The threats include habitat loss, excessive hunting, collision and wildlife diseases. </p>
<p>The plan complements:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the Agreement on the <a href="http://www.unep-aewa.org/">Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds</a>;</p></li>
<li><p>the Memorandum of Understanding on the <a href="http://www.cms.int/raptors/en">Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia</a>; and</p></li>
<li><p>the Agreement on the <a href="http://www.acap.aq/">Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Emphasis is placed on research that could help better direct conservation action and policy. To answer this call, <a href="http://migrantlandbirds.org/index.php">research</a> – in collaboration with the <a href="http://www.nzg.ac.za/research/index.php">National Zoological Gardens of South Africa</a> and the <a href="http://www.sanbi.org/biodiversity-science">South African National Biodiversity Institute</a> – set out to investigate migration connectivity in intra-African migratory landbird species. The transdisciplinary approach is expected to answer the question of migration connectivity across Africa.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121859/original/image-20160510-20703-136r1wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research on migrating birds could help better direct conservation action and policy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Samuel Temidayo Osinubi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Birds on the short list</h2>
<p>The initial focus of the research is on a shortlist of species that occur across western, eastern and southern Africa. The basic questions we asked are: what and where are the barriers to migration across Africa?</p>
<p>Cuckoos, bee-eaters and kingfishers have been shortlisted because they feed on insects. In the case of kingfishers, focus is on the insectivorous, not the the fish-eating ones. With insectivorous species that migrate, it is possible to test whether the seasonal timing of their movement is influenced by the migration of their prey insect groups. This offers a chance to investigate the additive effect of threats to different animal groups.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121861/original/image-20160510-20746-m9uq68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bird ringing helps to understand movement patterns of individual birds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Samuel Temidayo Osinubi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The main aspect of the fieldwork involves catching and ringing the birds. Bird ringing – referred to as bird banding in the US – involves trapping a bird and placing a uniquely numbered aluminium or plastic identification ring or tag it. The bird is able to carry the ring or tag with minimal effect on its survival. It can then be identified as an individual whenever and wherever it is re-trapped. Bird ringing helps us understand the movement patterns of individual birds. </p>
<p>This can be used to inform more accurate conservation actions. Conducting this project across Africa offers access to the different national and sub-regional bird ringing schemes. Bird ringing in Africa does not have the same historical dataset or network of ringers across the continent as is found in Europe or North America. But the <a href="http://safring.adu.org.za/">South African ringing scheme</a> is one of the most developed sub-regional ringing schemes on the continent. There is an ongoing effort to strengthen linkages between different ringing schemes, and ringing information from this project will contribute to existing databases.</p>
<h2>What’s being collected</h2>
<p>The research project includes using DNA extracted from tissue samples collected from the birds that have been ringed to assess genetic differentiation. This involves determining the level of gene flow between populations across the continent. A high degree of gene flow indicates individuals from the populations are interbreeding. A low degree of gene flow would suggest a geographically isolated population, or individuals of one population not breeding with another population even where their range overlaps. DNA extracted from a museum specimen is being used to check if the current degree of gene flow is the same for historic populations.</p>
<p>Stable isotope elements like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen have a unique signature at different locations and seasons. These stable isotopes – found in tissue cells, like wing feathers, that grow as the bird migrates – are being analysed. The analysis enables the comparison with what is known of isotope signatures across Africa. This comparison will give a broad indication of where in Africa the particular feathers were grown and the route the bird travelled during its annual cycle.</p>
<p>The differences in bird calls among populations across Africa are also being investigated. Vocalisation in a population can be a strong response to local conditions and point to variations between populations that could lead to the evolution of sub-species. Sub-speciation often occurs when populations become isolated. Small, isolated populations face the risk of a genetic bottleneck that might eliminate them.</p>
<p>In addition, avian pathogens responsible for diseases like avian malaria are studied from tissue samples collected in the field. This indicates the prevalence of diseases in avian populations across Africa.</p>
<p>Intra-African migrants have a population that is restricted to the African continent. This makes threats like habitat loss more profound. Studying their movement patterns will show the challenges these species encounter on the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Temidayo Osinubi works for the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. His postdoctoral fellowship is being funded through the University and he also receives funding from the International Foundation for Science (IFS). Samuel is a member of the African-Eurasian Migratory Landbirds Working Group, and also serves on the executive committee of the Migrant Landbird Study Group.</span></em></p>Birds migrating to Africa are threatened by issues like habitat loss. Studying their movement patterns will show the challenges these species encounter on the continent.Samuel Temidayo Osinubi, Postdoctoral Fellow and Avian Behavioural Ecologist, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.