Following successful eradications of alien mammals on several other of its sub-Antarctic islands, New Zealand is now looking to “complete the set” by clearing its largest southern island of three introduced mammals by 2025 - as described in the following advertisement for a Pest Eradication Project Manager.

“New Zealand’s Department of Conservation is seeking a talented and experienced person to manage the planning and delivery of a complex and specialised project. The project aims to eradicate remaining mammalian pests (pigs, cats and mice) from 46 000-ha Auckland Island in New Zealand’s World Heritage listed Sub Antarctic region.

The position is based in Invercargill. The successful applicant will be largely office based during the planning phase. The role will also be required to lead and oversee work on remote Auckland Island (465 km south of Bluff, New Zealand) for periods. You will enjoy working as part of a team in a challenging environment.

The ambitious project is nationally significant and aligned with the Predator Free New Zealand initiative’s interim goal for ‘Eradication of predators from New Zealand’s Island Nature Reserves by 2025′. Success will be dependent on quality planning and delivery.

The successful applicant will have proven performance in project management with outstanding leadership and communications skills and experience managing high value relationships. Some of the other skills you will need include:

Physically fit and capable in remote field situations,
Good computer skills with competency across Microsoft suite,
Adaptability,
Strong collaboration ability,
Media skills,
Strong negotiation skills,
Pest control and eradication knowledge,
Remote island operational experience, and
Full driver’s licence.

Auckland's White-capped Albatrosses will be able to breed with more success once the feral pigs are eradicated, photograph by David Thompson

Please apply online here. Applications must include a cover letter, CV and evidence of the required capabilities as per the project description.

For any queries, please contact Tony Preston, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. VPN 5812 or telephone (03) 211 2412, quoting vacancy 400/84T1.

Applications close at 5 pm on Monday, 29 May 2017.”

Click for the Project Description and the Applicant Information Sheet.

Read a related ACAP Latest News item here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer. 17 May 2017

News from the Australasian Seabird Group’s on-line discussion group is that globally Near Threatened Flesh-footed Ardenna carnepeis and Wedge-tailed A. pacifica (Least Concern) Shearwaters on Australia’s Lord Howe Island have had a very poor breeding season.

Flesh-footed Shearwater, photograph by Barry Baker

Jann Gilbert (National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University) has written to the ASG listserv:

“In one of the hottest summers on record for Lord Howe, which included a 3-month drought, it appears that egg laying was delayed some 4-6 weeks, and there was high chick mortality during the season. Some of this was following a weather event at the beginning of March (prior to cyclone Debbie), which dumped almost 200 mm of rain over 10 days and was accompanied by winds of up to 83 km/h. This was followed by cyclone Debbie at the tail-end of the breeding season. Consequently, most fledglings are not well-enough developed to fledge and, of the limited number that are, many are emaciated, and contain plastic.”

Lord Howe’s shearwaters face threats at sea from both ingesting plastic particles and longline fishing and on land from introduced rodents.  Long-term plans to eradicate Black Rats Rattus rattus on Lord Howe, a World Heritage site since 1982, have not as yet come to fruition (click here and here) but it now seems likely the poison bait drop will take place during 2018.

Read and watch a video clip about nationally Vulnerable Flesh-footed Shearwater studies on New Zealand islands here.

ACAP has identified both the Flesh-footed and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters as potential candidates for listing within the Agreement.  To date, two shearwater species, Pink-footed A. creatopus and Balearic Puffinus mauretanicus, are ACAP-listed.

Selected Literature:

Baker, G.B. & Wise, B.S. 2005.  The impact of pelagic longline fishing on the flesh-footed shearwater Puffinus carneipes in Eastern Australia.  Biological Conservation 126: 306-316.

Cooper, J. & Baker, G.B. 2008.  Identifying candidate species for inclusion within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  Marine Ornithology 36: 1-8.

Hutton, I., Carlile, N. & Priddel, D. 2008.  Plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed Shearwaters, Puffinus carneipes, and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Puffinus pacificus.  Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 142: 67-72.

Lavers, J.L., Bond, A.L. & Hutton, I. 2014.  Plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes): Implications for fledgling body condition and the accumulation of plastic-derived chemicals.  Environmental Pollution 187: 124-129.

Priddel, D., Carlile, N., Fullager, P., Hutton, I. & O’Neill, L. 2006.  Decline in the distribution and abundance of the flesh-footed shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) on Lord Howe Island, Australia. Biological Conservation 128: 412-424.

Reid, T.A., Hindell, M.A., Lavers, J.L. & Wilcox, C. 2013.  Re-examining mortality sources and population trends in a declining seabird: using Bayesian methods to incorporate existing information and new data. PLoS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058230.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 May 2017

Deborah Pardo (Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers-en-Bois, France & British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open-access in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences on the influence of frequency and magnitude of warm SST extreme climatic events on ACAP-listed Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Climate changes include concurrent changes in environmental mean, variance and extremes, and it is challenging to understand their respective impact on wild populations, especially when contrasted age-dependent responses to climate occur. We assessed how changes in mean and standard deviation of sea surface temperature (SST), frequency and magnitude of warm SST extreme climatic events (ECE) influenced the stochastic population growth rate log(λs) and age structure of a black-browed albatross population. For changes in SST around historical levels observed since 1982, changes in standard deviation had a larger (threefold) and negative impact on log(λs) compared to changes in mean. By contrast, the mean had a positive impact on log(λs). The historical SST mean was lower than the optimal SST value for which log(λs) was maximized. Thus, a larger environmental mean increased the occurrence of SST close to this optimum that buffered the negative effect of ECE. This ‘climate safety margin’ (i.e. difference between optimal and historical climatic conditions) and the specific shape of the population growth rate response to climate for a species determine how ECE affect the population. For a wider range in SST, both the mean and standard deviation had negative impact on log(λs), with changes in the mean having a greater effect than the standard deviation. Furthermore, around SST historical levels increases in either mean or standard deviation of the SST distribution led to a younger population, with potentially important conservation implications for black-browed albatrosses.”

A Black-browed Albatross feeds its chick

Reference:

Pardo, D., Jenouvrier, S., Weimerskirch, H. & Barbraud, C. 2017.  Effect of extreme sea surface temperature events on the demography of an age-structured albatross population.  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 372.  DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0143.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 May 2017

John Parkes (Kurahaupo Consulting, Christchurch, New Zealand) and colleagues have published open-access in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology on the New Zealand Government’s plan to eradicate introduced mammalian predators on island nature reserves by 2025, identifying which islands should be targeted.  Such action would include ridding Auckland Island of its House Mice Mus musculus, feral cats Felis catus and pigs Sus scrofa, thus eliminating their predation of seabirds, including ACAP-listed species, such as the Near Threatened White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi - a New Zealand endemic.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“In 2016, the New Zealand Government announced a policy to rid the country of key introduced predators (possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), ship rats (Rattus rattus), Norway rats (R. norvegicus) and mustelids (Mustela spp.)) by 2050. An interim goal under this policy is to remove all mammalian predators (the key species as well as mice (Mus musculus), kiore (R. exulans), cats (Felis catus), pigs (Sus scrofa) and hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)) from island nature reserves by 2025. We identify the New Zealand islands over one hectare managed as reserves by the Department of Conservation (DOC) that have mammalian predators that can be eradicated. There are over 850 islands, islets, stacks and vegetated rocks in the New Zealand archipelago. We exclude islands in lakes and rivers and those smaller than one hectare, which leaves 616 islands, less than half of which are under some form of reserve status (286 islands entirely managed by DOC and 13 under mixed tenures but with some reserve land). One or more mammalian predators are known to occur on 48 of these islands, with the Government’s 2050 target species on 42 islands and other predators (in the absence of the target species) on six islands. The Government’s 2025 goal nominates one class of reserve, nature reserves. Of the 48 islands, just four islands are classed as nature reserves – two (Mauitaha and Araara Islands) with protected kiore in the Hen and Chickens group and two in the Auckland Islands group (Auckland with mice, cats and pigs; and Masked with mice and cats) – i.e. none with the key species of the wider 2050 goal. Therefore, we consider other reserve classes but place more or less strict risks of reinvasion, as indexed by known swimming ranges of the predators, to judge the feasibility of eradication. Relaxing the reserve class of the island, but not our selection of swimming ranges, results in 15 candidate islands where all mammalian predators present could be eradicated for the 2025 interim goal. Decisions on which islands to select for the programme need to consider costs and other constraints to eradicate different combinations of predators, and whether the island and its predators provide templates for the wider vision of a predator-free New Zealand, i.e. whether any of the key 2050 predators are present, the size of the island, and/or the presence of human inhabitants that complicate the predators to be targeted or constrain the use of some control methods.”

White-capped Albatross at the Auckland Islands, photograph by Graham Parker

Read a popular article on the paper here.

Reference:

John P. Parkes, J.P., Byrom, A.E & Edge, K.A. 2017.  Eradicating mammals on New Zealand island reserves: what is left to do?  New Zealand Journal of Ecology 41.  doi.org/10.20417/nzjecol.41.25.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 May 2017