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Sandpiper Egg Swap



BARROW, ALASKA– (By Julie Konop) Dr. Bart Kempenaers, a behavioral ecologist from the Max Planck Institiute of Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany, and his team fashion fake Sandpiper eggs, swap them for the real ones in the nest and incubate them in their lab at BASC’s (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) new research facility. Once the hatchlings emerge, they take samples from them to determine factors such as paternity. The chicks are then returned to the nest, without the mother batting a feather.



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