Migration devastation

Development of mudflats on the country's eastern coast threatens migratory birds, including rare species. Liu Xiangrui reports in Beijing.

While most scientists are proud of their breakthroughs, Dutch ornithologist Theunis Piersma, who discovered and named after himself a subspecies of the red knot (Calidris canutus), says he's ashamed to talk about the creature. "I feel very proud to have these birds named after me, but I fear that they may actually become extinct in my lifetime," the 54-year-old told a recent conference in the coastal city of Tangshan, Hebei province. The red knot subspecies piersmai is among many migratory shorebirds that make the inter-tidal mudflat in Luannan wetland a critical stop along their annual migrations from Australia to the Arctic.

As booming industry continues to devour the mudflat - one of Bohai Bay's last - these birds are losing the key resting site of their migrations and will likely face extinction.