Scientific Research-Hooded Plover

Scientific Research-Hooded Plover By Tom Parish 

Synopsis
 The Hooded Plover is a bird which is located only in Australia. There are around 500 Hooded Plovers in South Australia. The Hooded Plover is 10cm high and 20cm long. They are around 90-100g. They have red legs, black heads, greyish back and a white underbelly. They nest just above the high tide level. The Hooded Plovers are currently underthreat from Vehicles driving on beaches, human beach activites and animals which may harm the nest or eggs. The beaches are being signed and people are trying to protect the Hooded Plover from extinction.

Aim
The aim is to research the beaches in which Hooded Plovers live to learn about there current population, Habitat and Nesting. This data collected will be used to setup a long term Hooded Plover monitor and to make rashinal changes to better protect the Hooded Plover from extinction. This Study is also trying to learn the current threats that the Hooded Plover are under which include: vehicles driving on the beaches, human beach activites such as walking and animals which could damage or destroy the nest or eggs of the Hooded Plover. This data will also be used to make radical desichons to improve the Hooded Plovers chances of suviral such as some signs and non-driving zones which have already happened.

Method
We will each have specific jobs to make sure the rearch project runs smothely which include: a scribe to neatly write data down for future reference, a GPS operator to mark the location of the Hooded Plovers when spotted for further sciencetific research in the future, threat observer to spot the threats to the Hooded Plovers on the beaches in which they live on and a photographer to take photos of the Hooded Plover for reports or for other purposes. All people with jobs will work together to make the research succesful. We are looking for threats to the Hooded Plover, Hooded Plovers location and nest.

Results
The results of the Hooded Plover research were succesful with us spotting and marking the location of 4 Hooded Plovers. The locations of the Hooded Plovers we located are S 35* 140.77 E 136* 50.40 of the first pair of hooded plovers which were located running near the water edge. The second Pair of Hooded Plovers were located at S 35* 140.039 E 136* 50.507. This is a goog result due to there only being around 50 Hooded Plovers on the Yorke Peninsula and we saw 4 of them on one beach. This is odd because the Hooded Plover is not a social bird and usually sticks together with a partner in pairs. This result proves that the Hooded Plovers are increaing in population. This may be due to the new signs and no driving zones on pondalowie bay where we did the research. The threats are being decreased which means there is more chance that the Hooded Plover will survive.