Page 64 - BBC Wildlife - August 2017 UK

AGENDA NEWS

SEABIRD FEEDING HOTSPOTS REVEALED

GPS tagging data helps uncover areas used by more than one need to feed their chicks. It “If the maps had shown that
the sea areas where four of our million guillemots, razorbills, represents a step change in how seabirds are using the whole
most common species forage. kittiwakes and shags from 5,500 we can manage our seabirds.” of the North Sea with the same
colonies in the BritishIsles. The RSPB’s head of nature level of intensity, that would have
The research took five years and “It’s a powerful conservation policy, Jeff Knott, says the data given us a bit of a problem,”
involved attaching GPS tagsto tool,” says RSPB scientist Ellie would enable them to lobbyfor he says. “But because there are
more than 1,300 seabirds. Owen. “If you protect those more focused conservation efforts clear hotspots, we can go to the
Now, using computer models, areas, then potentiallyyou are on issues such as windfarms, oil Government and say, ‘This is
scientists have revealed the sea safeguarding the resources they pollution and fishing efforts. what we need to protect.’”

GUILLEMOT RAZORBILL

An estimated 708,200 pairs of Razorbills are much less numerous
guillemots breed in the British Isles, than their auk relatives, guillemots,
13 per cent of the global population. with some 93,600 pairs believed Clockwise from guillemot: Danny Green/rspb-images.com; Alex Hyde/naturepl.com;Adrian Davies/naturepl.com; Phil Scarlett/Getty
Species is amber-listed, though to breed in Britain and Ireland, 20
numbers have largely increased per cent of the world total. Like
over the past 50 or years or so. guillemots, they're also amber-listed. d

KITTIWAKE SHAG

The British Isles' most numerous The least numerous of the species
species of gull, with 378,800 pairs, studied – there are some 26,600
eight per cent of the global total. pairs in Britain, 34 per cent of the
Numbers have declined by an world population. Also red-listed –
estimated 50 per cent since the late numbers fell by 27 per cent between
1960s, and the species is red-listed. the late 1980s and early 2000s.

Ivory: Env ronmenta Invest gat onAgency;Row ng:J m Spe man/Getty; fox: Edward Hast ng-Evans/A amy;e ephants: Wor dAnimal Protection A small town in southern China briefing new research suggests there has been
CONSERVATION

IF ANYBODY HAS BEEN
IVORY HUB
`
INFLUENCED BY MY BOOKSS TO
may be the hub for up to 80 per
THINK AN OWL WOULD BE HAPPPY
cent of the global ivory trade,
according to a new report from
IN A CAGE, YOU ARE WRONG.”
the EnvironmentalInvestigation
Agency (EIA). An EIA team
spent three years infiltrating
Harry Potter author JK Rowling
was published 20 years ago. In the books, owls are used to deliver personal
working out of Shuidong.
Harry Potter’sowl is calledHedwig.
messages
BBC Wildlife
64 ivory-smuggling syndicates an increase in the trade in wild caught owls in Indonesia since the first book August 2017