Younger godwit makes longest recognized nonstop flight ever

A four-month-old Bar-tailed Godwit often known as B6 set a brand new world report by finishing a nonstop 11-day migration of 8,425 miles (13,558 km) from Alaska to Tasmania, Australia. This journey represents the longest documented nonstop flight by any animal!

A crew of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Max Planck Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service performed a examine to trace the migration of juvenile (hatch-year) Bar-tailed Godwits from breeding websites close to Nome, Alaska. The examine was established to raised perceive how the birds navigate their first migrations from Alaska to wintering websites. This work is a component of a bigger effort to know the areas and instances of the yr the place godwits face the best threats.

A unique Bar-tailed Godwit, often known as 4BBRW, beforehand held the nonstop flight report, which it set in every of the final two years. It flew 8,109 miles (13,050 km) from Alaska to New Zealand in 2021. In 2020, its route coated 7,987 miles (12,854 km).

Tracked by transmitter

After fatting up on the Kuskokwim Delta, B6 left Alaska on October 13 and arrived in Australia on October 24. The shorebird was tracked utilizing a 5-gram solar-powered satellite tv for pc transmitter that was hooked up to its rump. Scientists used a U.S. Geological Survey metallic band and a uniquely coded alphanumeric leg flag to uniquely establish particular person birds.

“They don’t land on the water. They don’t glide,” mentioned Dan Ruthrauff, a U.S. Geological Survey analysis wildlife biologist who helped tag B6. “That is flapping flight for every week and a half. It’s loopy, and I feel is simply tangible sufficient that we are able to recognize it and have our minds correctly blown.”

Bar-tailed Godwits that breed in Alaska yearly conduct continuous migrations between the forty ninth State and wintering websites in New Zealand and jap Australia, however the actions of juvenile godwits on their first southbound migrations have by no means earlier than been tracked.

Alaska is a critically vital website for the world’s shorebirds. Alaska has an abundance of coastal ecosystems and meals assets that present vital breeding and migratory stopover websites for shorebirds. Thirty-seven shorebird species repeatedly breed in Alaska and most of those species conduct spectacular long-distance migrations. As their title implies, shorebirds are intimately linked to shorelines and wetlands, a undeniable fact that doubtlessly heightens their vulnerability to climate-related results attributable to rising seas and diminished wetland features. Shorebirds depend on interconnected networks of purposeful ecosystems at websites that usually are positioned 1000’s of miles aside around the globe.

The main focus of shorebird analysis on the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Heart is to assist establish vital breeding and migratory websites, and to analyze the causes of the declines in lots of shorebird populations. Info from these research is guiding conservation efforts and serving to scientists and conservation teams to raised perceive the results of global-scale threats to shorebirds, together with habitat modification and degradation, local weather change, and the unfold of infectious ailments.

Because of the USGS Alaska Science Heart for offering this information.

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