ROYAL OAK, Mich. (AP) - A bird expert at the Detroit Zoological Society has been recognized for his efforts in the recovery of the Great Lakes piping plover (PLUV’-er).
Tom Schneider received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Champion Award at the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak.
Each summer for the past 18 years, Schneider has organized people from zoos across the country to travel to Michigan’s Biological Station in Pellston where they work on the captive-rearing effort for the tiny shorebirds.
The team incubates eggs and raises chicks from abandoned piping plover nests. The chicks are cared for until they fledge and are ready to be released to join wild plovers.
The birds were declared endangered in 1986.
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