公益財団法人 日本鳥類保護連盟は野鳥をはじめとする野生生物の保護と普及啓発を目的とする団体です。

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The little tern has a species distribution spread worldwide and their extinction is feared in many areas.　North-eastern Europe also has a widely spread population but their extinction is attributed to habitat loss and therefore is a major conservation target.　The same situation occurs in the country of Lithuania, there the little tern has been added to the endangered species list but thorough research has not yet been carried out and conservation efforts for the species has yet to begin.　In our research of the European population we primarily investigated the north-eastern group, and for the purpose of conservation we launched a joint project with the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences.　We signed a cooperative agreement with the university insuring a joint program for the next ten years.　In 2014 our initial step for conservation was to capture breeding individuals and attach a geolocator to track their movements and migration route.　Although the surrounding area was not very habitable and fewer individuals migrated this year we managed to capture 4 individuals and release them with geolocators attached.　In order to conduct further investigation of the Lithuanian population we intend on increasing the number of geolocator attached individuals to take a closer look at their migration routes.　Once we gain a better understanding of their migration routes we can be more effective in protecting areas such as their wintering and stopover sites.　Finally, by comparing the data collected from the European group to the data of the Japanese group, we may be able to conserve the species on a global scale.

　





This work was supported by AEON Environment Foundation.