Project Penelope
Waterfowlers' Network is leading an international project aiming to track Eurasian Wigeon through the annual cycle by use of GPS-trackers and colour rings. The project will gather information on migration routes and habitat use, thus helping to support future conservation actions.
Project Penelope is an international collaborative project between hunters and scientists aimed at improving our knowledge of one of Europe’s most popular quarry ducks. A combination of traditional (ringing) and cutting-edge (GPS-tracking) techniques will be used to follow the migration of Eurasian Wigeon and learn more about how they use the European Protected Sites (EPS) network, and the wider landscape.
This project will provide invaluable information on Wigeon habitat use, movements and demography (including reproduction and survival), which will be immediately useful to assess the adequacy of our protected sites network and inform decisions to secure the sustainability of hunting.
Furthermore, Project Penelope will provide a basic understanding of relationships between breeding, staging and wintering areas as a basis for developing adaptive harvest management programmes, start to compile data on annual survival and reproductive success and guide actions to improve habitat conditions for the species.
The project runs from 2021 to 2024, and field work will take place in Finland, Denmark and United Kingdom. Apart from Waterfowlers' Network, project partners include The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), The Danish Hunters' Association, Aarhus University, Turku University, Helsinki University and a number of dedicated volunteers.
The project is funded by the Wildlife Habitat Charitable Trust, The Danish Hunters' Fund for Nature and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland.
We need your help
An important part of Project Penelope is based on resightings of individuals ringed with either a metal ring or a combination of metal and colour rings. Should you photograph, shoot or in any other way encounter one or more ringed individuals, we would very much appreciate hearing from you.
Read more about how to submit records of Wigeon ringed with metal and/or colour rings here.
Photo by Dennis Jacobsen/Colourbox
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