Tag archives for migrations
After Sandy: Unusual Bird Sightings
Posted by Suzan Eaton on November 12, 2012 
Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, East Coast residents have been seeing a number of unusual guests at their bird feeders during the last two weeks. The hurricane disrupted migration routes for some birds, and others simply got blown off course by the violent winds. Factor in the winter storm, the two weather events have brought together a very peculiar group of birds.
Flying Into A Hurricane — A Bird’s Perspective
Posted by Suzan Eaton on August 29, 2012 
Why would a bird fly into a hurricane? It seems that some migratory birds fly in so they can be slingshot out the other side.
Posted by 
While a new government statement announces the stretch across the Park will not be paved, conservationists’ concerns remain–focused on the traffic, not the tarmac.
Posted by 
Dr. Stephen B. Malcolm, professor at Western Michigan University, has been studying monarch butterflies in the field for 28 years, recently with support from National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration. He can tell you all about the monarchs passing through your garden this spring — and some of their mysterious cousins in South America.
A few years back, Gianluca Serra found a legendary bird thought extinct in Syria, with funds from National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration. Now Serra is trying to forge a stable population of these ungainly creatures, with a little help from a prince and some first ladies. By Barbara Moffet Q: The northern bald…
Posted by It’s beginning to be the time of year when caribou, as reindeer are known in North America, show up on holiday cards and tree ornaments. But not all is well with this iconic species, which has been in retreat from humans for decades. Now new thinking about the conservation and restoration of North America’s wild herds of caribou combines…
Nepal’s estimated 120 adult wild tigers do not take into account the young mountain landscape in the Churia region, so the country could be home to more big cats than believed. Using a grant from the National Geographic Society/Waitt Institute Program, biologist Kanchan Thapa is currently in the field, setting camera traps and looking for…
It’s nor or never for the bluefin tuna, an iconic ocean predator prized as a sashimi delicacy–and being overfished to the edge of extinction. “If we take action now, a thriving and sustainable bluefin fishery may be possible once again in both the western and eastern Atlantic,” says Susan Lieberman, director of International Policy at the…
After witnessing the world’s greatest wildlife migration along Kenya’s Mara River, the author reflects on the role of rivers in nurturing entire ecosystems. This post is part of a special National Geographic news series on global water issues. By Mark Angelo As an avid paddler and long-time river enthusiast, I’ve always marveled at the ability…
By Jordan Schaul An incidental encounter on a North American Atlantic coast beach with a horseshoe crab may have been your first introduction to this armored sea creature with a spiked tail. Hopefully, it won’t be your last. Some horseshoe crab populations are in trouble and that could mean trouble not only for vertebrate marine…
Millions of Canada’s migratory birds, representing more than a hundred species, could be at risk when they return this fall to areas in the Gulf of Mexico affected by the oil spill, the Boreal Songbird Initiative (BSI), a conservation charity, said today. “The Gulf Coast serves as important habitat for hundreds of Canada’s bird species…
Two leading conservation organizations have appealed to the Government of Tanzania to reconsider the proposed construction of a commercial road through the world’s best known wildlife sanctuary–Serengeti National Park. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) are recommending that alternative routes be used that can meet the transportation needs of…
The Serengeti road to disaster
Posted by Stuart Pimm on June 18, 2010 By Stuart Pimm What comes to mind when you think of Africa? During the World Cup, perhaps thousands of vuvuzelas sounding like a swarm of very angry bees as fans cheer their team. But other than that? Surely huge herds of animals walking across vast, open plains. I arrived in South Africa, in 1996, to…
The National Geographic Society teamed up with the Waitt Family Foundation to help qualified and experienced individuals launch the most difficult stage of a project for which to secure funding—the search. Special emphasis is placed on expedited grant processing and turnaround. Applicants are able to receive funding within weeks. Since its inception the NGS/Waitt Grants…
Why the ultimate frequent flyer–the American knot–is endangered
Posted by Stuart Pimm on May 25, 2010 This is the second part of a series on the shorebirds that make one of the longest annual migrations in the world, the 9,000-mile flight that spans the entire Americas, from feeding grounds on Tierra del Fuego to breeding grounds in the Arctic. The heroic journey has evolved over countless generations. But can the migration, and the…
Ringing the knot on the New Jersey shore
Posted by Stuart Pimm on May 25, 2010 Conservation biologist Stuart Pimm joins citizen scientists–highly skilled amateur naturalists and their extraordinary organizer–on a New Jersey beach. The mission : Catch, band, and release hundreds of red knots, tiny birds that stop to rest and feed on one of the world’s epic animal migrations–the annual trek between the southern and northern extremes of the…
By Sean O’Connor Biscayne National Park, Florida–Migratory birds heading north to breeding grounds in higher latitudes are common visitors to the Florida Keys. Robin Diaz of the South Florida Bird Observatory tags an American redstart on Elliot Key in Biscayne National Park earlier today. This little guy is a two-year-old male with almost zero fat…
Researchers have found a migration route of pronghorn antelope that ranks among the farthest for any land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Idaho-based Lava Lake Institute for Science and Conservation, said in a news statement. Photo by W.B. Karesh The route stretches from the base of Idaho’s Pioneers Mountains…
