field work

In the final couple days of Tut camp research I worked with Mairin Murphy on her project connected to spectacled and common eiders. These are large sea ducks and they too use the fertile land of the Yukon delta as a breeding ground. Mairin is also doing a population study but this species does not

Baby development and clutch size (number of eggs laid per mating couple) are good metrics when looking at a successful population, but parents’ survival is also important. That is why scientists also work on banding adults and affixing geo trackers to assess their migration routes. Trapping geese can be tough. Geese are big, strong, smarter