A discovery that left you speechless: they fly for more than 12 kilometers, giving rise to one of the longest migrations ever recorded
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himA discovery that has left even ornithologists speechless: cuckoos fly for more than 12 kilometers, crossing southern Africa and eastern Asia and giving rise to one of the longest migrations ever recorded.
"Last summer, a team of researchers put a GPS on five cuckoos at Khurkh station in northern Mongolia, says Chris Hewson, senior ecologist with the British Trust for Ornithology, as the eastern cuckoo migrated to northern Siberia. central, the common cuckoos have gone much further ".
Two even ended up at 90 degrees latitude in southern Africa. “It was one of the longest animal migrations recorded for a land bird,” he continues.
The most is that for their survival, birds according to ornithologists should migrate as little as possible. But these cuckoos have overcome every obstacle and danger.
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“Obviously, flying 2 or 3 kilometers above the ocean is a pretty dangerous thing to do,” he says and continues: “The common cuckoo is basically an African species, which has expanded its breeding range in Eurasia. So, from the far west with the British Isles to Far East Russia. But until we started this project, nobody knew how far the cuckoos managed to migrate ”. Or rather, no one knew that they could reach Africa.
In this graph the journey of the cuckoo:
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“So we were quite surprised to find that they actually did. And, of course, when you move to a new place, you are exposed to predators ”. The two cuckoos, renamed Onon and Bayan, have crossed several cities. Both flew over the skies of Mongolia, China, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Somalia.
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"The main stop for a Mongolian cuckoo before it flies to Africa is India, where it gains weight a lot in the fall and then gradually moves south to Africa after the rains," continues the expert.
After this long journey they stay a couple of months away from home and then return, but in practice they are on the move throughout the year. They stay still for just six weeks.
However, these animals are increasingly threatened by both humans and climate change.
"These are phenomena that we are observing, even if there are no dramatic drops for now, it is a species that must be kept in sight because habitat loss is a problem".
Source: Mongolian Cuckoo Project
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