GLEN ARBOR, Mich. — In a forest near Lake Michigan, two scientists attached a backpack tracking device to a merlin they'd lured into a net. The mission: help prevent the predatory species from gobbling up piping plovers — highly endangered shorebirds that nest nearby.
Merlins themselves were going downhill decades ago but are recovering, thanks to bans on pesticides such as DDT. That's good for them — but not for plovers in the Great Lakes region, where only 65 to 70 pairs remain. The small falcons are "are a big threat to their recovery," said Nathan Cooper, a research ecologist with Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
