Project Background

• Long term monitoring of populations is the traditional way of determining if a species is in danger.

• This requires sustained effort over many years.

• For migratory or mobile animals, changes in behaviour can also mask population changes.

• A detected trend does not explain the cause of said decline

• Many shorebird species are thought to have declining populations

• Monitoring programs often unable to detect strong trend in many shorebird species

  • High variability in census counts between years can mask trends.

  • Vary high variability in counts between sites can increase variation in population estimate

• An overarching cause of shorebird declines also remains elusive

• Five hypotheses have been generated to explain the decline in census counts:

1. Climate Change

2. Avoidance of predators

3. Contamination

4. Human Disturbance

5. Habitat Loss and Degradation

   (See Butler et al. Shorebird Research Group of the Americas for more information)