Collaborations

Ongoing collaborations

One of the main purposes of Global Wader is to facilitate collaborations among those interested in pursuing common aims, be it from local studies with very specific conservation applications, to global analyses of migratory behaviour of a given species to expand the current knowledge.

If you think Global Wader could help you reach out to others in order to start a relevant collaboration, please drop us an email at globalwader@waderstudygroup.org.

Ongoing collaborations led by Global Wader team or others:

• HABITRACK

• Global Whimbrel

HABITRACK

Global Wader has partnered with “HABITRACK – Habitat tracking for the conservation of huntable bird species”, a project funded by the European Union and coordinated by the French national museum of natural history (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle) in collaboration with another six partner organisations, aimed at providing crucial knowledge for the conservation of breeding, migration and wintering habitats for 14 species of huntable birds with non-secure conservation status in Europe. As eight of these species are waders, Global Wader will promote and facilitate the exchange of information between data owners and HABITRACK, which will further complement current knowledge gaps with its own tracking program (more info here).

Target wader species are: Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa), Eurasian Curlew (Numeniuns arquata), Common Redshank (Tringa totanus), Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus), Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and Ruff (Calidris pugnax).

The main objectives of HABITRACK project are to collect high-resolution tracking data on these species to determine their habitat needs, provide recommendations for management and restoration actions, and ultimately improve their conservation status.

These objectives will be achieved through the following activities:

1. Breeding habitats – study the links between population trends and habitat use across the European range and the projected effects of ongoing climate change on demography. Then model response curves of individual use of landscape elements within a home range, to identify potential optimal values.

2. Non-breeding habitats - integrate migratory connectivity to further link habitat needs on the non-breeding grounds (including stopover site) to population trends, tackling potential carry-over effects on breeding performance.

3. Breeding performance and mortality - investigate ways remote tracking data can bring new information on breeding status and performance, and on cryptic mortality, to allow and calibrate the future remote monitoring of demographic parameters.

HABITRACK team provides the opportunity for data contributors to potentially become co-authors in publications arising from this research when relevant by actively participating and providing expert input.

Interested in getting involved?

Great! If you have tracking data on these species already shared with Global Wader, please pay attention to your email as we will reach out to you. However, if you have relevant tracking data and are yet to let us know about it, please do fill in the Global Wader data agreement form and share your (meta-)data – we will take it from there.

Global Whimbrel

Whimbrels are an iconic species found worldwide, with several subspecies/populations facing dire situations but others apparently doing well. Studies of single populations have allowed us to understand the distribution, migration routes and behaviour of Whimbrels, but by examining the global picture across subspecies and populations in a comparative framework we hope to gain deeper insights and uncover new routes for research.

Through a collaborative effort, we aim to create a global overview of Whimbrel migration by:

1. Mapping all tracking data and overlaying it on current distribution maps to identify knowledge gaps, e.g. areas where no or very few individuals have been tracked.

2. Comparing migration metrics, associated morphometrics, trends and threats between subspecies/populations.

3. Produce a list of relevant questions for future research based on the patterns detected in the previous aims.

Preliminary results

This collaboration has allowed to amass a dataset encompassing all subspecies across most flyways, totalling over 1.4 million locations from 229 individuals. We now start to have a good picture of whimbrel tracking across the globe and geographical gaps in it – a clear one being the breeding area in central Russian tundra, and non-breeding areas in East and Southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Such knowledge gaps can impair our understanding of the migration ecology of populations using this part of the world and therefore an accurate assessment of their conservation status. By inspecting the map, it is easy to see how subspecies vary in the length of their migration paths. Furthermore, variation in migration timings among subspecies is noticeable and deserves further reflection on its causes and consequences. Please explore the figures below and if you have questions about this project, don't hesitate to reach out.

Migratory routes with the breeding (triangles pointing downwards), wintering (triangles pointing upwards) and stopover sites (spring: circles; autumn: diamonds). Stopover symbol sizes represent duration. Each subspecies is show in a distinct colour.

Timings of main migratory events across subspecies. Boxplots are slightly transparent to help detect overlaps. Months are marked by white and pale blue bars.