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Saving Species

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Examining the world of nature and the challenges of wildlife conservation

Saving Species: Series 2

Saving Species: Series 2: Episode 21

Episode 21

Series 2

BBC Radio 4 - Saving Species, Series 2, Episode 21

Saving Species catches up with the work in Outer Mongolia on the Bar-Headed Goose.

The Bar-Headed Goose famously migrates high over the Himalayas to reach its breeding grounds on the high altitude grassland plateau - or does it? We report on the latest research.

21/30 The Bar-Headed Goose, according to research biologist Lucy Hawkes, "is at the limit of what a goose can do". Lucy Hawkes, from Bangor University, studies this remarkable bird on its breeding grounds in Outer Mongolia on the grassy plateaus. Her work has largely been concerned with how they get back and forth to their breeding grounds from their south Indian wintering areas. But how does studying the migration of the Bar-Headed Goose help inform their conservation. Lucy, recently back from the field in the Himalayas is in the Saving Species studio.

Also in the programme: The re-intruduction of the Fen Raft Spider into a restored marshland in Suffolk. Chris Sperring went to see the spiderlings "lowering themselves from their test tube [home] by a thread" into the wild. A wonderful story of animal husbandry, habitat restoration and the science of re-introduction.

And where has Chris the Cuckoo ended up, or is he still heading south. We'll have the BTO live in the programme to bring us up to date with the Cuckoos on the move.


Presented by Brett Westwood
Produced by Sheena Duncan
Editor Julian Hector.

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