Remember The Eskimo Curlew

The last Eskimo Curlew tells his story throughout a year during his migration from wintering grounds in the pampas grass-lands of Argentina and Uruguay to the Canadian Arctic in search of a mate. It’s a bird’s eye view of a perilous migratory journey of up to 8,000 km, which paints a realistic and detailed picture of this bird's life and his behaviour. The lone survivor crying for a mate, that never comes. stands for the entirety of a species on the brink of extinction, and for all in nature that is endangered. The Eskimo Curlew is gone because humankind hunts for leisure; it's never coming back. The message hits especially hard because it follows this individual bird, and you become invested in his life and you want him to succeed, but you know that's not happening.

The Last Curlew’s story was written by Fred Bodsworth, a Canadian newspaper reporter and naturalist, in 1954. Decades later the science journalist Sonia Shah in her book ‘The Next Migration: Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move’ explores the cross curricular connections within the topic of migration. Reviewing Shah’s book, Richard O. Prum juxtaposes a vision of the vulnerability of more than 300 species of bird migrating north along traditional geographic “flyways”, with human migrations on nearly every continent. Refugees are fleeing from war, ethnic and gang violence, political oppression, famine, climate change and poverty.

 
Finally, you may know the people of the Arctic who cohabited with the curlews, as Eskimos. But they are officially called the Inuit. For many indigenous people of the northern-arctic, the blanket term "Eskimo'' is offensive because it was not a name they chose for themselves. Historically, they were hunters in the truest sense. Now their lives are affected by a contemporary world, which is placing limits on how they can hunt and a changing climate that is destroying their environment. There is a big element of uncertainty in their culture. Will they follow the Curlew?

The topic of migration is a rich source of elements for cross curricular education and there is no better place to begin than the ten stamps of ‘Migratory Birds’ recently published by the UK’s Royal Mail. They showcase the diversity of birds that arrive in the UK; from seabirds that migrate along the UK's coastline, such as the Arctic skua and Arctic tern, to the bird of prey, Montagu's harrier. Other migratory birds on the stamps include the Stone-curlew, Swallow, Swift, Turtle Dove and Yellow Wagtail. All are under threat.

Audubon