Tailing the Montagu's Harrier
Migrating Montagu’s harriers face a host of dangers, from changes in farming practices to illegal hunting in the Mediterranean. The key to saving this graceful raptor could lie in its little-known wintering range, the African Sahel. In 2014 a small team of researchers from the Dutch Montagu's Harrier Foundation travelled to Senegal to shed light on the birds' enigmatic wintering behavior with a cutting-edge tracking system.
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Using a system of relay antennas strategically positioned around several roosts near Khelcom, Senegal, researchers can read out the birds' data loggers. This yields detailed information on birds' movements (e.g. location, elevation, flight speed, and temperature in three-second intervals), but also migratory data for birds that have been equipped with GPS-loggers at European breeding sites in previous years.
