By JULIA HORTON
Published on 28/04/2013 00:00
ONE of Scotland’s most elusive birds has been tracked from Coll to the Congo in a breakthrough study which experts say will transform conservation of the species.
Until now, it was believed that corncrakes migrated from the tiny Hebridean island off the south-west of Scotland to the far south-eastern corner of Africa for the winter.
But scientists working with RSPB Scotland have discovered that the birds actually fly to the central African country of Congo to winter in forest clearings made by elephants.
The study is the first of its kind to capture accurate data on the birds’ route using geolocators attached to their legs which recorded their flight.
Ornithologists are using the data to spot possible links between changes in weather and farming practices in the Congo, which might explain rises and falls in numbers in breeding colonies in Scotland. Loss of habitat fuelled by increasingly intensive agriculture across Britain caused populations in Scotland to crash in the late 20th century.
A major campaign changing crofting practice helped the birds recover and numbers are now stable at around 1,200 singing males. Scientists now hope the African data will lead to further changes that will allow the bird to thrive again.
Rhys Green, the RSPB’s principle research biologist and professor of conservation science at the University of Cambridge, said: “Everything we knew about corncrakes before was based on reports from wintering grounds which were few and far between and in unusual circumstances –
such as from hunters who accidentally caught them while looking for grasscutter rats to eat.
“The main areas where they were reported were in the south-east of Africa, from around Zambia down to the north of South Africa, which is where corncrakes from Russia migrate to and, therefore, people thought that the wintering grounds for Scottish corncrakes were mainly there as well.
“This study shows that we were wrong. They are actually doing this double migration, flying to western Africa first and then on to the western part of the Congo basin.
“There are lots of forests there and they don’t like forests so they will be in open areas, like those cleared by forest elephants, raising the intriguing possibility that Scottish corncrakes are lurking around in the long grasses between elephants legs.” He added: “Now that we know where they are, we can analyse the data on weather, like changing rainfall or overgrazing in the Congo, to see whether there is any correlation with changes in breeding populations back on Coll.”
The geolocator project began when 50 adult male corncrakes were captured in and around the RSPB’s nature reserve on Coll in June 2011. Fitting the devices was carried out by playing a recording of the bird’s distinctive, rasping call at night and attracting males, fooled into thinking a rival was in their territory, to “blunder” into a net.
last year – and the bad news is that he vanished into the second largest rainforest on earth in early December.
