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HK duck's epic Arctic trip sheds light on migration
(AFP) ? 6 hours ago
HONG KONG ? A wild duck has returned to Hong Kong after an epic 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) round-trip to the Arctic which conservation experts say has provided new information about bird migration.
Environmental group WWF said the female northern pintail duck, which was fitted with a transmitter in December last year, returned to Hong Kong's Mai Po Nature Reserve at Christmas.
The bird was the only one of 23 from Hong Kong tagged with a miniature solar-powered transmitter to have returned to the Chinese territory, the group said in a press release.
The tracker shows the bird left Hong Kong on February 25 and reached the Arctic Circle in mid-June.
It stopped in east and northeast China and the Yellow Sea off South Korea before reaching Siberia, where it stayed for three months presumably for breeding before heading south in late September.
Flying at an average speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) an hour, the duck travelled 1,700 kilometres (1,060 miles) in three days, stopping in Russia and Japan before reaching the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on December 18.
It eventually returned to the Hong Kong wetland nature reserve around Christmas after a round-trip totalling about 12,000 kilometres...
HK duck's epic Arctic trip sheds light on migration
(AFP) ? 6 hours ago
HONG KONG ? A wild duck has returned to Hong Kong after an epic 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) round-trip to the Arctic which conservation experts say has provided new information about bird migration.
Environmental group WWF said the female northern pintail duck, which was fitted with a transmitter in December last year, returned to Hong Kong's Mai Po Nature Reserve at Christmas.
The bird was the only one of 23 from Hong Kong tagged with a miniature solar-powered transmitter to have returned to the Chinese territory, the group said in a press release.
The tracker shows the bird left Hong Kong on February 25 and reached the Arctic Circle in mid-June.
It stopped in east and northeast China and the Yellow Sea off South Korea before reaching Siberia, where it stayed for three months presumably for breeding before heading south in late September.
Flying at an average speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) an hour, the duck travelled 1,700 kilometres (1,060 miles) in three days, stopping in Russia and Japan before reaching the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on December 18.
It eventually returned to the Hong Kong wetland nature reserve around Christmas after a round-trip totalling about 12,000 kilometres...