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PROTECTING OUR WILDLIFE :
Monitoring Birds on the Great Lakes
Follow Dr. Chip Weseloh, Wildlife Biologist, as
he goes out into the field to study birds, such as Cormorants, Night-Herons
and Herring Gulls, on the Great Lakes.
Transcipt:
[Description: Dr. Chip
Weseloh and volunteer, Richard Joos, exit their car and walk out
into the spit at Eastport, Hamilton Harbour on Lake Ontario, where
lots of birds live.]
[Title:
What can birds tell us about pollution?]
Chip: My name is Chip Weseloh. I'm a
wildlife biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, which is
part of Environment Canada.
[Description: Chip and Richard keep
walking into the tree-lined spit as herring gulls and cormorants
swirl all around them.]
The work I'm involved with is monitoring pollution levels - levels
of toxic chemicals - in wildlife on the Great Lakes. And while that
sounds like a pretty big job, we do narrow it down a bit in that
we select certain species of wildlife which will give us a good
indication of what is happening in the environment. These are called
"indicator species".
[Description: Chip looks through binoculars
and discusses with Richard about their plans.]
So what we do is focus primarily on birds that eat fish. Usually
those are herring gulls, double-crested cormorants, and black-crowned
night-herons. And by focusing on those birds, we get an impression
of what's happening at the top of the food chain, what the contaminant
levels would be, what effects they might be having.
[Description: Chip and Richard continue
to walk out into the spit, observing the birds closely.]
Our work is important because we have to know what's happening
in the environment and what's happening to the wildlife that lives
there. Pollution and disruption of wildlife and disruption of the
environment is important to everybody.
[Description: Chip and Richard approach
a double-crested cormorant nest and begin inspecting and measuring
some of the eggs.]
And so every spring, wildlife biologists like myself, go out into
the field to count nests and collect herring gull eggs, and sometimes
eggs of cormorants and night-herons, so we can monitor pollution
levels in these species. By doing this year after year, we can tell
if pollution levels are improving or not. And our studies show that
they are. In the past 25 years, pollution levels have declined up
to 90 percent in some species. That means that there's only one-tenth
the amount of pollution now that there used to be, and that's quite
an improvement.
[Title: Are the
Great Lakes getting cleaner?]
[Description: Shots of Chip looking
around and then a shot of a black-crowned night-heron nest in a
tree with a baby chick.]
You see, 25 years ago, the lakes were very polluted, and the effects
of this pollution were showing up in wildlife. There were fewer
young birds being hatched, and we noticed that part of the reason
for this was because birds' eggs had eggshells that were so thin,
they would break before the birds could hatch out. And the reason
the eggshells were so thin was due to the effect that toxic chemicals
in the lakes, such as DDT, were having on the mother birds.
[Description: Shots of nearby factories
which spew smoke and pollution into the air.]
But since that time, governments have passed laws which have banned
chemicals like DDT and industries have reduced the amount of pollution
they were dumping into the lakes.
[Description: Shot of a ring-billed
gull chick being held and examined by Chip. Chip puts the chick
down gently and it starts walking away into the bush.]
So today, the eggs no longer have thin egg-shells, the birds are
reproducing more young than they used to, and most bird populations
are definitely increasing. So that is all very, very positive, and
it means that pollution is decreasing and the lakes are getting
cleaner.
[Title: Why do we
band birds?]
[Description: Shots of Chip and Richard
bird banding: placing bands on young cormorants' legs.]
One very important part of monitoring birds is "bird banding".
In bird banding, we place a small metal band on a young bird's leg,
so we can track the bird's migration patterns. This small metal
band doesn't harm the bird at all. The band has an identifying number
which goes into our database so we know where the bird was hatched
and where it might end up some day.
[Description: Shot of a small electronic
transmitter. Chip and Richard release the young cormorant chicks
after placing bands on their legs.]
We also put little electronic transmitters on some birds so we
can find out where they go when they migrate in the winter time,
how long they stay in their wintering grounds, and how long they
stay in their breeding grounds. This gives us important information
about the bird and lets us know if that particular species is having
any problems which might be due to pollution in its habitat.
[Description: Richard takes a photograph
of various birds, such as herring gulls, night-herons and cormorants.]
So, yes, we track fish-eating birds. There are other people who
track fish themselves. There are other people looking at turtles,
looking at virtually all aspects of the Great Lakes, and it all
ties into the bigger picture of, you know, what is the status of
the lakes? Are they cleaning up, are they getting worse, are they
staying the same?
[Description: More shots of various
birds who inhabit the spit.]
Certainly, the overwhelming answer, compared to 25 years ago, is
that the lakes are much, much better than they used to be, but there's
still much work to be done. By maintaining our work and the work
of others, we'll be able to track improvements again next year,
five years from now, ten years from now, we'll be able to compare
back to other points in time and see how the lakes compare.
[Title: "This
is a great job!"]
[Description: Shot of Chip going into
the bushes to look at a black-crowned night-heron nest. Close-up
on a baby chick. Chip gently picks up the chick, shows him to the
camera and then puts him back in the nest.]
As far as how I enjoy my work, I absolutely love it. I think I've
got one of the best jobs I've ever heard of. Lots of people often
tell me, "Boy, I wish I had your job, it sounds great."
So I really, really enjoy it. I like being out on the lakes during
May and June when the birds are doing their nesting, laying their
eggs, eggs are hatching, the young birds are being produced.
[Description: Shots of various birds.
Chip and Richard pack up their equipment and return to the car.
Their work for today is done.]
I've been doing this work since 1978 on the Great Lakes, and that's
over 25 years. I enjoy it immensely, and I'm looking forward to
next year and beyond when we can go to the islands on the Great
Lakes and count the birds and collect a few of their eggs, and keep
doing it year after year to make sure that things are improving
and the bird populations are getting healthier and the lakes themselves
are getting cleaner so that 25 years from now or 50 years from now,
Canadians will still be able to enjoy the Great Lakes and the wildlife
that lives there.
