00:00, 7 JUN 2016
BY TOM WHITE
The Arctic tern weighs less than
an iPhone yet covered a massive 96,000km on its journey to its winter home
before returning to the UK
A tiny sea bird has
made the longest ever known annual migration, which saw it fly from
Northumberland to Antarctica and back.
The record breaking Arctic tern,
which weighs less than an iPhone, covered a mammoth 96,000km in its journey
down to its winter home in the Weddell Sea before returning to the Farne
Islands.
It was part of a study carried
out by scientists at Newcastle
University for BBC’s Springwatch, which
mapped for the first time the annual migration of the terns.
Last year, 29 birds were fitted
with geolocators by the researchers and have now returned to the islands to
breed.
The previous record had been held
by an Arctic tern that covered 91,000km on its flight from the Netherlands.
Dr Richard Bevan, from Newcastle
University’s School of Biology, said: “It’s really quite humbling to see these
tiny birds return when you consider the huge distances they’ve had to travel
and how they’ve battled to survive.
“So far we’ve managed to catch 16
of our tagged birds from last year and we’ve seen at least another four birds
with our geolocators attached.
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