Climate change threatens the brown godwit, a bird that flies between the Arctic and Patagonia

Rio de Janeiro., In its search for eternal summer, every year a species of coastal bird makes an exhausting round trip between the Arctic and Patagonia, a feat that faces increasing dangers. The brown needle (Limosa haemastica) It is one of the most extraordinary traveling birds, but in the last four decades its population has plummeted 95 percent due to a combination of environmental changes.

It is one of the 42 species proposed to receive international protection at COP15, on the UN Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species, which began yesterday in Brazil.

Popular creatures such as the snowy owl – made famous by Harry Potter –, the striped hyena and the hammerhead shark are also on the list of species at risk of extinction that require conservation measures.

Populations of migratory birds are facing “rapid and drastic declines,” Nathan Senner, a professor of ornithology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who has studied the brown godwit for 20 years, told Afp.

Scientists are still unraveling mysteries about this species, capable of flying up to 11 thousand kilometers without stopping to eat, drink or sleep. However, this is only part of the 30 thousand round-trip kilometers that it travels each year from its breeding areas in the Arctic to Patagonia, where it spends the southern summer.

scarce food

In this “epic flight,” brown needles need “predictable and abundant food resources” at every stage of the journey, Senner highlighted, a predictability that is in crisis.

In the Arctic, the earlier arrival of spring, attributed to climate change, has generated a mismatch between the time when chicks are born and the peak availability of insects on which they feed.

One of the puzzles Senner seeks to solve is why brown godwits began migrating six days later than they did a decade ago. Something altered “either the signals they use to synchronize their migrations or their ability to successfully and quickly prepare for the journey.”

In southern Chile, the rise of salmon and oyster aquaculture favors a greater human presence and infrastructure in the coastal areas where these birds feed, and in the United States changes in agricultural practices mean that shallow water wetlands – vital for this species – are increasingly scarce.

This forces birds to spend more time looking for places to rest and eat.

Most species are capable of “responding to a specific type of change, but not to a multitude of simultaneous modifications,” warned Senner.

“Climate change means that species that depend on the geological clock to live are severely affected,” said Rodrigo Agostinho, president of the Brazilian environmental agency Ibama, before COP15, which is being held in Campo Grande, in the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world rich in biodiversity.

Considered one of the most important meetings for wildlife conservation, the meeting brings together countries that assume the legal obligation to protect species at risk of extinction.

However, a recent report revealed that 49 percent of the species included in the convention lists have declining populations, compared to 44 percent two years ago.

Most of the animals in the most critical situation are birds, the convention’s executive secretary, Amy Fraenkel, told AFP.

The situation is also “particularly alarming” for fish species, since 97 percent of those included in the treaty are threatened with extinction. Migratory species “are essential to the health of ecosystems,” Fraenkel said.

“They have key functions such as pollination, pest control and nutrient transport,” he added.

On a positive note, COP15 will propose removing the Central Asian Bactrian deer from the list of animals requiring a high degree of protection: their populations are recovering.