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lecture on arctic terns | 24 June 2026 |
A remarkable man, Hugh Ellis, professor at the University of San Diego, aged 82 years, is doing field work on energetic expenditure of arctic terns. We have worked together several seasons. Me catching and ringing terns and equipping them with migration trackers and he measuring oxygen consumption and collecting faeces for environmental DNA. Environmental DNA will tell us, what the terns have been fishing for in the fjord. His story explains the insulation and rest metabolism of the arctic tern as a compromise to breed in the Arctic and migrate to the Antarctic. For polar birds, its insulation is not exceptional and its basal metabolism relatively low. But these are adaptations to migrate through the tropics at sea level. An arctic tern does not have much body reserves and has to fish also during migrations. My geolocators (tracking devices to register their migration) have shown a lot of dives in the sea. To not overheat during migration, many migratory birds fly at high altitudes. But the arcttic tern needs to fish. That makes this cool bird feeling relatively cold in the Arctic and Antarctic. Places were food is so abundant, that they do well.   |
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| 20260621, 17:50 | 20260624, 18:52 | all items shown with small pics | |||||
| departure of Marek | lecture on arctic terns |