The international migrations of arctic-breeding shorebirds pose complex and often daunting challenges to conservationists.
With many species flying well over 10,000 miles each year, shorebirds depend on a string of hospitable sites between their arctic breeding grounds and their winter quarters in far reaches of the southern hemisphere. Throughout the year, a single individual will interact with a broad array of habitats, people, and policies, so protecting these species requires an international resolve to preserve crucial habitats.
Studying a species' movements to uncover key sites in the migratory pathway is a critical first step towards conservation, and this project aims to do just that. The film follows our fieldwork in subarctic Canada, where we've tagged 25 Whimbrels with geolocation devices to follow their movements. We'll be back in the summer of 2013 to retrieve the geolocators and see where they've been carried over the past year.