New Zealand: too far for a summer holiday?
17 Sep 2007
Is New Zealand too far 'downunder' to enjoy a sun-drenched summertime holiday? A record breaking trip made by one feathered visitor would suggest not.
A female bar-tailed godwit, known as E7, has made a marathon 11,500km journey to New Zealand from its breeding ground in Alaska.
Researchers now know the godwits really are the champions of avian migration. Unlike seabirds, which feed and rest on their long journeys or swifts which feed in flight, the godwits make their long journeys without feeding or drinking.
The migrant champion was one of 13 satellite-tagged bar-tails (Limosa lapponica baueri) that left New Zealand at the beginning of the year.
E7 set her first record on the way north, when she flew non-stop for 10,200km (6,340 miles) to Yalu Jiang in China. She then flew a further 5,000km (3,000 miles) to the godwit breeding grounds in Alaska. And on the way back to New Zealand, her tag still working, E7 set another record (7,150 miles).
"We were pretty impressed when she did 10,200km on the way north," says Massey University ecologist Phil Battley.
"And the fact that she can now do 11,500km... it's just so far up from what we used to believe 10 years ago when we were thinking a five or 6,000km flight was extremely long. Here we've doubled it."
The New Zealand godwit tracking effort is part of the broader Pacific Shorebird Migration Program, which aims to find out more about global migration patterns of declining shorebird species in the Pacific basin.
Further information:
www.nzshorebirds.com
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