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Goose nesting site

Migrating bar-headed geese head for high altitude lakes to breed.

Well, we're on our way. Wherever Steve Leonard and the film crew happen to be, the team of scientists will regularly up-date them via a satellite phone to tell them exactly where the bar-headed geese are. From the latest update we know Hillary is pretty much out of range for us just now, so we've decided to try and meet up with Tenzing. But the lake he's on is well over 15,000 feet high, and it's the other side of a very high pass. But why is Tenzing up here? Well, high altitude lakes make for a perfect nesting site. Bar-headed geese are able to survive the altitude and the cold, but very few other animals can - and that includes predators. It's just far too extreme. The lakes are simply too high and too difficult for predators to get to, so this is a great place for the geese to nest and hatch out the next generation of bar-heads. During the short summer there is an explosion of plant growth. So, actually, there's loads for the geese and their new families to eat. If we can get up to Tenzing we will probably find a big goose-nesting site - we may even find Tenzing is a proud father and has his own little family up here. If we can get there...

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