Great Knots (Calidris tenuirostris) feeding on the former Saemangeum flats 4, South Korea
This species has been uplisted to Vulnerable owing to a rapid population decline caused by the reclamation of non-breeding stopover grounds, and under the assumption that further proposed reclamation projects will cause additional declines in the future. The Great Knot breeds in north-east Siberia, Russia, wintering throughout the coastline of South-East Asia, and also on the coasts of Australia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The global population has been estimated at 380,000 birds, of which 176,000 were thought to pass through South Korea. Since then the reclamation and development of wetlands in South Korea has led to a decline in the observed counts of non-breeding populations, mostly notably including dramatic declines at the Saemangeum wetland which previously held approximately 20-30% of the global population on migration.
Year: 2012
From album: The Tidal Flats of the Yellow Sea within the East Asia Pacific Flyway of Coastal Birds
Photographer: Ju Yung Ki