Updates from our Cuckoos

Transmissions from Chris' tag on 13 March reveal that he is in Nigeria, having moved 430km (267 miles) WNW from his previous location in Cameroon. Chris is in the Benue region, about 33 km (20 miles) to the west of Nigeria’s border with Cameroon. 

Only low quality signals have been received recently from Chris’s tag but these show that on 4 March and throughout 6 March he was slowly zig-zagging in a north-westerly direction. The last of these transmissions at about 6pm, show him 138 km (86 miles) north-west of the location he was in on 4 March. Where will he be when the tag next transmits?! 

Transmissions received yesterday morning show that Chance is still in Ghana and has moved closer to Lake Volta again. Ha has travelled roughly 50km (32 miles) north-west from his last position and appears to be on a narrow river-like section, 42km (26 miles) north of the previous location beside the Lake.

David, along with BB and now Chris, are now all in the East Region of Cameroon. David's tag transmitted a poor quality signal this morning about 20km (12miles) north-west of his previous location, moving him closer to the border with the Central Region.  David is 80km (50 miles) to the north-west of Chris's new postion and 120 km (75 miles) north-east of BB.

The last signal shown on the map was transmitted on 24 February but over the weekend we received a further poor quality signal which shows it's likely he has remained in the same area. Zooming in on the map you can see he appears to be in the depths of the Sankuru Nature Reserve.  This is the world’s largest continuous protected area for great apes at 11,800 square miles and is the first large-scale reserve in the Congo to be managed by the indigenous people. None of the Cuckoos tracked last year wintered as far east as Lloyd, so we are waiting to see whether he will follow the other Cuckoos to Cameroon or whether he will do something different.  

We have received several locations for Chance dotted around the north of Lake Volta in Ghana, the most recent of which was on 2 March. Last year Kasper spent around 3 weeks in this area while Lyster spent just over a week. Both left the area around mid-March 2012.  

BB’s previous transmission in Cameroon showed he was on the border between the East and South Regions of Cameroon but from here he continued 100km (60 miles) in a more northerly direction, transmitting from his new location on 3 March. David and Chris are similar distances away from his new location, 124km (77 miles) and 141km (88 miles) respectively, although in different directions.

Chris is now the only Cuckoo not to have started his northward movement and remains in Congo.  His last transmission was on 25 February - could he be feeding up in preparation or already on the move? Last year Chris moved to Cameroon on 2 March and took a slower route to Ghana than any of the other Cuckoos, stopping in Togo on 6 March and transmitting from Ghana on 13 March.  How closely will this year’s movements mirror those of 2012? 

BB is the latest of the Cuckoos to have started moving north-west! He has left Congo and transmissions received yesterday afternoon show that he is now in Cameroon. He is on the border between the East and South regions and has covered 417 km (260 miles) since his previous position.  David, who is also in Cameroon, is 197 km (123 miles) to the north of BB.