: Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Ten Animals at Risk

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Least Terns

Photograph

by Dave Martin, AP

A least tern checks on its rock-colored

eggs on a Gulfport,

Mississippi (map), beach on Saturday. The Mississippi coast is home

to one of the largest nesting colonies of least terns in the United States,

according to the National Audubon Society.

 

But as oil from the Deepwater

Horizon spill in

the Gulf of Mexico moves closer to shore, the migratory birds are

among up to 400 coastal species that could be affected, biologists say. Least

terns are likely to come in direct contact with the slick, because they fish

for food along the beach, said Lee Schoen, curator of birds at the Audubon Zoo in

New Orleans.

 

" The turns are right there on the beach, and they nest on the shores of

these barriers islands. Along with all of the other [potential dangers],

they're going to have nests getting oil in them, " Schoen said. (See shorebird

pictures.)

 

—Craig Guillot

Published

May 6, 2010

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/photogalleries/100506-nation-animals-oil-spill-gulf-pictures/#gulf-oil-spill-wildlife-threatened-least-tern_19950_600x450.jpg