Within the cycle of annual lectures on conservation biology, initiated by Tour du Valat in order to highlight the work on waterbirds conservation of Heinz Hafner, this year was the occasion to welcome Alan Poole, on 9th November 2023.
An ornithologist with training at Princeton, Yale, and Woods Hole, Alan Poole has had a long career in the worlds of research and publishing. He is an Associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society, and the recently retired editor of the Birds of North America (BNA).
The Heinz Hafner 2023 conference has being organised in partnership with the Pro Pandion association, to mark the 100th anniversary of Luc Hoffmann’s birth.
You can now watch below the lecture entitled « Learning from Ospreys ».
Abstract: The Osprey is a fish-eating bird of prey with a broad, near global distribution, and a dedicated human following in both the professional and citizen science communities. The past half century has given us an unparalleled wealth of information on this charismatic bird, covering a broad range of topics: contaminant impacts, population dynamics, migration, foraging ecology, breeding behavior, and conservation – to name the most prominent. It seems an appropriate time to step back and assess what we have learned from these many decades of Osprey research.
This talk will highlight key findings from European and North American Osprey populations, on both their breeding and wintering grounds, with an emphasis on conservation and on what this bird can tell us about the widely varied habitats that support it. In addition, no look at Ospreys today can fail to spotlight the human connections — how people have nurtured the extraordinary resurgence in Osprey numbers seen in many parts of its range. In an era when many of earth’s natural systems are unraveling, and birds in particular are struggling to maintain numbers, the Osprey “revival” is a phenomenon deserving a closer look.
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