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The red knot bird or just knot bird is a medium-sized shorebird that completes every year the longest migration on the animal planet and may teach us some lessons about the environment.
Every year, they travel more than 14,000 km from the southern edge of South America, all the way back to their breeding location in the high Arctic Circle. This flock of birds has commonly thousands of red knots that make a vital stop in Delaware Bay to get feed. There, the birds refill their bodies with local horseshoe crab eggs before completing their migration journey.
Sadly, the extensive and excessive harvesting of horseshoe crabs performed by the fishing industry has resulted in not enough horseshoe crab eggs to feed the red knot flocks. This specific shorebird is included in Endangered Species Act and is under threat due to the decrease in the total number of crabs. Environmental law and groups are now urgently calling to comply with a regulation in favor to their survival.
The raising amount of data shows that many red knots are considering Delaware Bay as not reliable anymore to ensure the food, and they are omitting to arrive there. Recently, a group of investigators from the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project noted around 12,000 birds at their crest, less than the amount shown in 2019 (30,000 specimens) and just a fraction of the total found in 1989 (94,000 specimens).
This trend is overpassing the red knot to approach the animal kingdom. Commercial industry activities are increasing the pressure on many animal species, setting there in jeopardy. In fact, loss of biodiversity and habitat destruction are two of the largest problem industrialized activities has brought, and over eight million species are forecast to extinct in the years to come.Let's remember that species in this natural world are closely dependent one from each other, and that is why protecting the planet's balance is more important now than probably ever.
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