Critically endangered southern dunlin chicks survive only through human intervention

The southern dunlin, a critically endangered wading bird along Finland’s Bothnian Bay coast, would likely vanish without direct human aid, as rising floodwaters repeatedly destroy its nests, researchers at the University of Oulu report.

Biologists have resorted to collecting eggs from nesting sites in Lumijoki and Hailuoto, artificially incubating them, and hand-rearing chicks in protected conditions. Without this intervention, entire clutches would be submerged by seasonal flooding, according to Veli-Matti Pakanen, a university instructor leading the project.

“Even minor rises in water levels now threaten nests,” Pakanen said. “In the 1970s, such destructive floods occurred once a decade. Today, they happen almost annually.”

The chicks, weighing just seven to eight grams at hatching, spend their first week in climate-controlled lab rooms before transfer to secure coastal enclosures. There, they are fed a diet of mosquito larvae and custom pellets until fledging at three to four weeks old. Last year, 26 hand-reared birds were released; one was later spotted migrating through Germany to wintering grounds in Mauritania.

While artificial rearing provides temporary relief, Pakanen stressed that long-term survival depends on restoring at least 90 hectares of coastal meadows through grazing—habitat the birds need to nest. Without livestock to maintain these low-lying areas, rising seawater (which can advance a kilometer inland with just a meter’s increase) leaves the species with nowhere to breed.

“Every chick is a miracle,” Pakanen said. “But this is just a stopgap. The real solution is bringing back the meadows.”