‘Literally I burst into tears’

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Bird ecologist Richard Fuller becomes emotional when recalling the destruction of the Saemangeum mudflats in South Korea. A half a million shorebirds depended on the habitat during their migration between Australia, Southeast Asia and the Arctic. Ten years ago, the tidal mudflats were sealed off from the sea and converted to dry land. Most of the birds starved. Professor Fuller struggles to hold back tears as he tells Ann Jones why shorebirds are a particularly special kind of bird. Image: Dead shorebird at Saemangeum, Republic of Korea, 2007. Credit: Charles J. Page