By NAINA RAO • JUN
26, 2018
A new predator has emerged for a
little shorebird in our region, the piping plover.
Snowy owls often spend time out
on Great Lakes beaches in the winter. It’s a good habitat for them. But
something unexpected happened this year.
Vince Cavalieri is the piping
plover coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“It became very apparent early
this year that there were a lot of snowy owls still being seen,” he says.
He says the owls hung around
later than usual.
“This is the first time I’ve seen
snowy owls this late into the season in these kinds of numbers and also it’s
the first time we know that piping plovers were predated by snowy owls,”
says Cavalieri.
This is a problem because piping
plovers are an endangered species. There are fewer than 80 nesting pairs in the
Great Lakes region.
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