Published: 06:00Monday
08 July 2019
A seabird
found dead on a nature reserve has been named the UK’s oldest ever recorded
Arctic tern – beating the previous record by nearly two years.
First
ringed as a chick at Buddon Ness in Angus, the tern was discovered at the
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Forvie National Nature Reserve in
Aberdeenshire.
The bird
was found to be 32 years old, almost to the day, when it died, which is more
than double the average
tern lifespan of around 13 years.
The previous
record holder was a tern recaptured on the Farne Islands, off the coast of
Northumberland, in 2010, just over 30 years after being ringed as a chick.
Arctic
terns are among the most remarkable birds that visit Scottish shores. Their
pole-to-pole migration is the longest known annual journey by any animal.
By moving
continually between Arctic summer and the Antarctic summer, terns see more
daylight than any other creature on earth.
Clocking
up up to 44,000 miles each year, the record-breaking bird may have flown up to
1.408 million miles during its lifetime.
Daryl
Short, Reserve Officer at Forvie, who found the deceased bird, said: “It’s
incredible to think that the bird I found flew the equivalent of to the moon
and back, and then back to the moon and some way home again.
“Arctic
terns are amazing animals. The birds are currently protecting their chicks at
Forvie and other nature reserves around the country and they’re not afraid to
give you a bump on the back of the head if you get too close to their nests.
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