Red Knots: Sentinels by the Sea
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Story and photographs by Shauneen Hutchinson
ive years ago we featured red knots on our
cover and included a story about them in that
issue. The article was largely a celebration of
a small bird (the size of a robin) that often
migrates from the tip of South American to the Canadian
Arctic and back in a single year—18,000 miles. We were
especially interested because a significant percentage of the
knots that migrate along the Atlantic flyway stop over to
rest and refuel on the Kiawah Island beach.
Quite a bit has happened to this little bird since then, and
in this issue, we are looking at some of the events that have
occurred and the research that has been published during
the intervening years.
In December of 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service announced that the rufa subspecies of red knot
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would receive protection as a threatened species under the
Endangered Species Act. The effective date of the listing was
January 11, 2015. Service director Dan Ashe stated, “The
red knot is a remarkable and resilient bird known to migrate
thousands of miles a year from the Canadian Arctic to the
southern tip of South America.
Unfortunately, this hearty shorebird is no match for the
widespread effects of emerging challenges like climate change
and coastal development, coupled with the historic impacts of
horseshoe crab over-harvesting, which have sharply reduced
its population in recent decades.” Since the 1980s, red knot
population in many areas has decreased by almost 75 percent.
The graphic on the opposite page prepared by the Service tells
the story effectively.
Naturally Kiawah