This beautiful bird depends on horseshoe crabs for survivial. Every spring, Red Knots exploit the abundance of eggs produced when horseshoe crabs spawn in the Delaware Bay. This feeding opportunity is crucial to the birds' breeding success for that year. The bird faces extinction because horseshoe crabs are being over-harvested for use as bait.
The best way to restore the ecosystem needed by both species is to list the Red Knot under the Endangered Species Act. (Which itself needs to be protected; see Endangered Species Act Is Endangered).
Take action before May 19! Click here to call for protection of this crucial species: www.audubonaction.org/site/Advocacy?id=1539
Learn more:
Visit the American Bird Conservancy website: about the Red Knot; about the Red Knots and horseshoe crabs.