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12-23-07, 12:54 AM
Quoting from Outpost Magazine (a fascinating magazine which I'd recommend to anyone interested in travelling the world: http://outpostmagazine.com/ ) ...
"Biologists have recently measured the longest non-stop flight a bird has ever made in the course of migration: 11,500 kilometres without a single break for food or drink. The awesome journey took only nine days.
Scientists attached a satellite tag to a female wading bird known as a bar-tailed godwit, a species that travels from Alaska to New Zealand every September in a flock of about 70,000 and makes the return trip every March.
Data collected from the tag revealed that the bird left New Zealand in March and flew 10,200 kilometres to a wetland on the North Korea-China border. There, she made one feeding and rest stop before continuing the 5,000 kilometres to Alaska. In September, the bird made the 11,500-kilometre return trip (across the entire Pacific) to New Zealand non-stop.
Satellite data showed that the bird flew at an average speed of 56 kilometres an hour, at elevations of between three kilometres and four kilometres.
The number of birds making this spectacular annual trip is falling though. In the mid-1990s, scientists estimated close to 155,000 made the aeronautical pilgrimage from New Zealand to Alaska and back again. They suspect that development in Korea, typically the godwit's only rest stop, has made vital feeding more difficult for the birds."
And here's some more info about the journey:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/barg_updates.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/52357562.html
That's some randonnee!! :D
"Biologists have recently measured the longest non-stop flight a bird has ever made in the course of migration: 11,500 kilometres without a single break for food or drink. The awesome journey took only nine days.
Scientists attached a satellite tag to a female wading bird known as a bar-tailed godwit, a species that travels from Alaska to New Zealand every September in a flock of about 70,000 and makes the return trip every March.
Data collected from the tag revealed that the bird left New Zealand in March and flew 10,200 kilometres to a wetland on the North Korea-China border. There, she made one feeding and rest stop before continuing the 5,000 kilometres to Alaska. In September, the bird made the 11,500-kilometre return trip (across the entire Pacific) to New Zealand non-stop.
Satellite data showed that the bird flew at an average speed of 56 kilometres an hour, at elevations of between three kilometres and four kilometres.
The number of birds making this spectacular annual trip is falling though. In the mid-1990s, scientists estimated close to 155,000 made the aeronautical pilgrimage from New Zealand to Alaska and back again. They suspect that development in Korea, typically the godwit's only rest stop, has made vital feeding more difficult for the birds."
And here's some more info about the journey:
http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/shorebirds/barg_updates.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/52357562.html
That's some randonnee!! :D