Geneva Lunch
Ellen Wallace
World’s longest banded and tracked wild animal sending strong signals again
Max continues to favour her regular haunts
Max, world’s longest tracked wild animal, gets a new emitter (photo, ©2012 Fribourg Natural History Museum)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Max, the female stork who summers near Lake Constance and now winters in southern Spain after eight winters in Morocco, will be closely followed again by her fans and ornithologists when she heads south, most likely within days.
The Swiss-born bird is the longest banded and tracked animal in the world, but since spring 2012 the emitter on her band has worked imperfectly after it was damaged, and sightings in her regular haunts were needed to complete the picture of her migrations and movements.
Efforts to catch her long enough to replace the band failed until 30 August when Max received a new one, smaller and more powerful, and she is now sending loud and clear signals once again, says the Natural History Museum in Fribourg.
GenevaLunch has followed her forays, matings, births and the education of her offspring regularly for the past six years. Welcome back, Max!
Ed. note: check out the Spanish-based Bird Migration project that covers numerous other European/African bird treks, with a good explanation about how bird tracking works.
Categories: Featured story, News, Society
Tags: band, birds, emitter, how bird tracking works,longest tracked animal in the wild, Max, migrations,Natural History Museum of Fribourg, ornithology,stork
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