Life on the East Asian Flyway

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of the great wonders of the natural world is in deep trouble.

Millions of shorebirds fly from Australia and Southeast Asia to the Arctic every year. They follow the planet’s most gruelling migratory route – the East Asian Australasian Flyway.

Join Ann Jones as she watches wading birds such as curlews, godwits and sandpipers prepare for their epic journey. They fatten up on clams to the point of obesity, to fuel the flight. They grow bigger hearts and flight muscles. Just before departure, they shrink their digestive organs to become the most efficient flying machines for their first 7 day non-stop flight.

The birds’ lives are full of danger and the most serious threats are man-made. The flyway is in peril with many species plummeting towards extinction. As you’ll hear, it’s enough to make a grown man cry.

The series is a co-production from the BBC World Service and Australian ABC Radio National.

Image: Waders readying to migrate north at Roebuck Bay, Western Australia, Copyright: Ann Jones

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading from the BBC.
0:03.0	The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,
0:07.0	go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts. broadcasts.
0:21.0	So I'm looking at a red knot there, which is code three, blue line blue blue. 50% breeding plumage.
0:24.0	I think it's a Rogers Eye and its body profile 4.
0:28.0	So that's already got a lot of fat on it.
0:30.0	So maybe getting close to departing and I will probably see that bird in China.
0:40.0	From Broome in Australia all the way to China and far beyond.
0:44.4	Hello, I'm Anne Jones.
0:48.0	Today and for the next four weeks on Discovery from the BBC,
0:52.4	a special production in conjunction with Australian ABC Radio
0:56.9	National. We're going to experience a wonder of the natural world firsthand as we follow on the tail feathers of millions of
1:05.2	birds as they fly all the way from Australia to Siberia. This is a month-long
1:11.4	journey along the East Asian-Australian flyway.
1:15.0	It's really the greatest route that migratory birds take on the planet.
1:21.0	And compared to any of the other flyways in the world it has a
1:26.8	higher diversity of species and a higher proportion of globally threatened
1:30.7	species. So this is a wonder of global natural heritage. globally threatened
1:37.0	flyway in the world.
1:40.0	flyway is the most threatened flyway in the world.
1:41.0	So we're having the highest number of threatened water bird species and
1:47.2	sherbirds first of all and the highest numbers sadly highest numbers of
	...

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