Why several birds will be equipped with small high-tech GPS beacons, in the bay of Saint-Brieuc

We already knew that Brent geese had a taste for traveling. The analysis of GPS data, since a specimen was equipped, in December 2023, in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor), confirms this. Having left on migration on March 23, 2024, the goose arrived on the Taimyr Peninsula, in Russia, on July 3. She left again on August 9 and returned to Binic on October 10. Summary of his flight: 900 km in the bay last winter, 167,000 km traveled, with peak speeds of more than 90 km/h, before returning to the bottom of the bay.

“One might have thought it routine after spending the whole winter in Binic,” deciphers Anthony Sturbois, responsible for scientific missions at the Saint-Brieuc Bay nature reserve. But, not at all. “She made numerous migratory stopovers, a big stopover in the Wadden Sea, visited the English coast and made a big stopover in Denmark. » The big one…” of the…