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Saving Species

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Examining the world of nature and the challenges of wildlife conservation

Saving Species: Series 1: Episode 36

Series 1

Episode 36

BBC Radio 4 - Saving Species, Series 1, Episode 36

In this weeks programme "Top Goose", how BBC geese generated new science.

Geese followed on migration in a previous Radio 4 broadcast event have yielded new science that makes the spectacle of migration even more of a remarkable wildlife phenomenon.

36/40 In 2008 we broadcast a year long event on BBC Radio 4 following the trials and tribulations of migrating animals as they moved from breeding ground to feeding ground. One of the great animal travellers we followed in "World on the Move" were geese - especially: Brent, Greenland White-front and Barnacle Geese as they migrated from the UK to Arctic Canada, Greenland and Svalbard respectively. The project "Top Goose", led by Colin Pennycuick of Bristol University, the research staff of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust - And with with crucial weather data being provided by BBC weatherman Richard Angwin - generated new information to science. "Top Goose" not only plotted the migration on a map - Pennycuik's work, for the first time, measured fuel consumption by the geese en route. The work is now published in a peer reviewed paper, and shows these geese set off on their migration with a 100% redundancy in fuel - put another way, they could fly to their breeding grounds and back again without feeding! Why so much extra fuel? We ask Colin Pennycuick and re-live the moment we followed these geese live on air in 2008.

And Sarah Pitt presents another "Memories" piece, this week with Graham Martin from Birmingham University on the abundance of Tawny Owls.

We're also in Malaysia on the trail of a new species of Gecko.

And the mystery of the slime deposits around the British countryside. Ispot users crack the riddle. We have Jonathon Silvertown from the Open University telling the story.


Presented by Kelvin Boot
Produced by Sheena Duncan
Series Editor Julian Hector.

Saving Species: Series 1

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Brett Westwood examines the world of nature and the challenges of wildlife conservation

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