Spring waterfowl migrations are in full swing as thousands and thousands of geese, geese, and different species depart the southern U.S. and Central America and head towards Canada to stay out the nice and cozy months. One drake mallard fitted with a GPS tracker from the Cohen Wildlife Ecology Lab at Tennessee Tech broke a lab document on April 6 by reaching a prime pace of 99.3 miles per hour someplace between southern Minnesota and the Canadian border.
For context, which means the duck was flying as quick as Corridor-of-Famer Aroldis Chapman’s fastball and twice as quick because the world’s quickest land mammal, the cheetah, can run. The Cohen Wildlife Lab posted the feat to its numerous social media accounts Tuesday, together with a map of the greenhead’s northwesterly route.
Anybody accustomed to the 4 principal migratory flyways of North America will discover that the drake has additionally traveled from the jap facet of the Mississippi Flyway to the very western fringe of the Central Flyway, and can doubtless find yourself someplace within the Pacific Flyway earlier than reaching its summering grounds.
“Most of our birds have made it to the prairies, however this drake mallard is main the pack,” a publish on the lab’s Fb web page reads. “He began his spring migration on March 14 however took a 3 week break simply outdoors of St. Louis whereas the climate warmed up. He took off once more on April 6 and coated 1000 miles in 29 hours whereas additionally taking an 8-hour break in southern Minnesota. ESE winds gusting over 50 mph on the night of April 6 pushed him 600 miles from southern Minnesota throughout the Canadian border in simply 8 hours. With this loopy tailwind his prime pace recorded on GPS was 99.3 mph!”
Masking 600 miles in 8 hours means the duck maintained a mean pace of 75 mph throughout that point. The lab’s principal investigator and assistant professor of wildlife ecology and administration Bradley Cohen identified in a reply to a commenter that mallards normally migrate at an altitude of 4,000 to five,000 ft at night time. (The lab didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.)
Whereas this specific drake broke the lab’s document, it’s not unprecedented for geese to journey at these breakneck speeds once they get good wind at their backs. One pintail hen flew from eastern Russia to California — some 2,000 miles — in 25 hours, sustaining a mean pace of 80 mph because it traversed the width of the Bering Sea. The subsequent day, it crossed three flyways and landed in Louisiana.
Learn Subsequent: Hundreds of Mallards Swim Out of Flooded Timber, Swarming Hunters
The lab’s posts elicited many feedback of shock and a handful of jokes from duck hunters.
“I believe this can be the identical massive Greenhead I missed on the finish of the season,” one commenter writes. “Dude was transferring!”