Washington Wildlife A-Z: M-Marbled Murrelet Traditional Cache
Rock Rabbit: The cache owner is not responding to issues with this listing, so I must regretfully archive it.
Washington Wildlife A-Z: M-Marbled Murrelet
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Size: 
(small)
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Marbled Murrelets are endangered in Washington State and classified as threatened in the United States. Their population dropped 7.3% per year between 2001 and 2010.
Marbled Murrelets are small seabirds about the size of robins. They are in the auk family. They were once called "the enigma of the Pacific". They are solitary and shy. In 1974 it was the last bird in the United States to have its nesting site discovered.
Only one egg is layed at a time. Both parents take turns incubating the egg. They only stay with the chick one or two days before they leave it alone, only coming back to the nest with food from the ocean. After being fed for about 40 days the chick must fly to the ocean on its own.
Although they are seabirds they nest inland in old growth forests. They will travel up to 50 miles inland to nest. This causes a clash between conservation and logging. In the past ten years over a quarter of a million acres of murrelet nesting habitat has been destroyed by logging. Oil spills and fishing nets also threaten Murrelets.
This cache was placed on the 2nd International Geocaching Day.
***Congratulations to webster08 and NinjaDinja for First To Find!***
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