scientific reaserch- hooded plover

Hooded plover, by Will James.


Synopsis:
The hooded plover (Thinornis rubricollis) is a small bird about 10 cm tall and 20 cm long ands weigh90-100g and are endemic to South Australia. These birds live and nest on the beach and it is because of this situation that they are going extinct. The males and females have the same appearance while the juveniles are basically just grey versions of their parents. The birds live on the beach and also nest and feed on the beach. These birds are dying out because they are being killed by predators and are not adapting to their changing environment. Their nests are run over by cars and they do not produce rapidly enough to keep their numbers in the clear. Some ways of helping these little birds is by banning driving on certain beaches and by sealing off areas where they are nesting so that people don’t walk over them.

Aim and introduction:
What we are trying to do with this research is to save these birds from extinction and to help them come back from the brink. The habitats are being destroyed by humans driving their cars on the beaches and by dumping rubbish on the beach as well as predators eating them. These birds nest on the beach by scraping a small hole in the sand, this leaves the nest open to attack from predators and with them being on the beach cars and people can destroy the eggs by driving and playing beach games such as cricket.

Method:
When we did our research we walked along the beach and tried to see if there were any hooded plovers on the beach. If there were any plovers on the beach we would write down wether there were any threats to the plovers such as cars and people on the beach. We also recorded the weather conditions wind strength as well as he coordinates of the place where we found the birds. When we did our research we had five different jobs that were done. One person was the scribe and that person wrote down all the info that needed recording. The second person was the GPS operator and they told the scribe all the coordinates of the different sightings and nests that we saw. The third person was the threat observer and they told the scribe of all the threats to the plover that were around the nesting sights. A fourth person was the photographer and they took pictures of the plover and the environment that they were living in. And the fifth person was the video operator and they took videos of the bird walking around and of what their actions were.

Results:
The results that our group collected were of no surprise at all to me. I knew that there would be almost no hooded plovers at the two beaches that our group went to and there was in total only about 4-6 hooded plovers at both sites combined. The two beaches that our group went to were Pondalowie and West Beach. At both of theses site it was very cloudy and windy and the temperature was high at times. We didn’t see many things and we only saw a few hooded plovers and didn’t see any nest eggs chick or juveniles at both beaches and so there wasn’t much to write about.
Found
Other plovers: 30
Foot prints: many
Fox prints: 0
Horse prints: 0
Tourists: 19
Vehicles (various sizes):12
Pacific gulls: 4
Sea gulls: 25
Fishermen: 4

Discussion:
I think that what we have discovered will go towards helping he hooded plover survive. It may not have made a big difference but every little thing helps and I have done my part to help this little bird survive and continue to live. The major cause f the reduction in the numbers of the hooded plover is because there are to man y people driving along the beach in their big 4x4’s and crushing the birds nests and eggs. The birds also have very little chance of becoming adults. The eggs only have a 22-24% chance of becoming chicks. The chicks only have 20% chance of becoming juveniles and then the juveniles only have a 55% chance of becoming adults.

Conclusion:
I think that there are many things that people can do to help the hooded plover and that they just need to get organised and figure out some solutions that will help the plover to survive. I think that the people that will help with the projects that are trying to save the plover will the environmentalists and those other types of people. There are many threats to the hooded plover such us foxes, gulls, cars, people, lizards and feral cats and these threats must be contained if the plover is to survive. I think that they should seal off some beaches or just area of beaches during the mating and hatching season of the hooded plover so that the birds will have a bigger chance of surviving. They should also try to remove animals and predators or at least protect the birds so that they have a bigger chance of reproducing and continuing the cycle.