Mar. 11, 2013 — Extensive shell fishing and sewerage
discharge in river estuaries could have serious consequences for the rare
Icelandic black-tailed godwits that feed there. But it is the males that are
more likely to suffer, according to new research from the University of East Anglia
Research published today in the journal Ecology and
Evolution reveals very different winter feeding habits between the sexes.
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| Black-tailed Godwit. (Credit: Tómas Gunnarsson) |
Both males and females mainly consume bivalve molluscs,
sea snails and marine worms, probing vigorously into soft estuary mud with
their long beaks. But the study shows that females, which are larger and have
longer bills, are able to peck further into the silt to secure larger, deeper
buried prey in areas that the shorter-billed males cannot reach. This means
that human impacts on estuaries may have different impacts on males and
females, depending on which prey sizes are most affected.
The godwit is a large, long-legged, long-billed migratory
shorebird. It breeds almost exclusively in Iceland
and winters on western European coasts, from the UK
and Ireland in the north to
the Iberian Peninsula in the south.
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