** UPDATED **

Please Note:  An extension has been granted for expressions of interest for the Mouse Free Marion Project Manager. The new deadline is 30 September 2020. All submissions already received will still be considered for this contract position.

A Grey-headed Albatross chick ‘scalped’ by mice on Marion Island, photograph courtesy of the FitzPatrick Institute

South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island is overrun by introduced House Mice Mus musculus, which in the last decade have taken to attacking and killing the island’s albatrosses and petrels, notably chicks of the globally threatened Grey-headed Thalassarche chrysostoma and Wandering Diomedea exulans Albatrosses (click here for previous ACAP Latest News posts on Marion’s mice).

 To address the problem a call has now been made for Expressions of Interest for “a highly qualified, dedicated and dynamic” Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager.  The project is a joint endeavour between the South African Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) and the environmental NGO BirdLife South Africa, as described on the “Mouse Free Marion” website.

The scope of the project manager’s work will include reviewing and refining the Mouse-Free Marion Project and its operational plans and assisting with the appointment of the Operations Manager and the eradication team.  Qualifying requirements for the position include a minimum of 10 years’ experience in project/business management at a senior level.  Project management experience in island-based invasive mammal eradication will be an additional advantage.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant travel restrictions has led to pauses in eradication projects on New Zealand’s Auckland Island, United Kingdom’s Gough Island and the USA’s Midway Atoll, all supporting large populations of ACAP-listed species.  Perhaps these three islands, along with Marion, can still all be declared free of introduced mammals by the end of the decade.

The Project Manager will be based in Cape Town, South Africa.  The initial contract period will be for 2.5 – 3 years, with a six-month probation period based on initial progress achieved. The position is being advertised internationally and is not restricted to South African citizens/permanent residents.   Assumption of contract would be by 1 January 2021; closing date for applications: 3 September 2020. The eradication exercise is currently proposed to be undertaken in the winter of 2023.

Apply to Isabel Human (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) with the subject title MOUSE-FREE MARION PROJECT MANAGER.  For further information, contact Alistair McInnes (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).  Read more details here.

With thanks to Carol Jacobs, Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries & Nini van der Merwe, BirdLife South Africa for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 August 2022, updated 07 September 2020

Balearic Shearwater at sea, photograph by Pep Arcos

The Small Grants Programme aims to assist ACAP meet its objective of achieving and maintaining a favourable conservation status for albatrosses and petrels.

Sixteen applications were received from seven Parties in response to the 2019 call by the ACAP Small Grants Programme made in September last year.  Of these, seven projects from six Parties were approved for funding, as set out below. Notable are three funded projects to study aspects of the Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus.  Funding disbursed totalled AUS$ 134 296.

It is expected that execution of at least some of the funded projects may be delayed to a greater or lesser extent by travel or other restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications are now sought to the 2020 round of the Small Grants Programme for project funding in 2021.  Total funding of approximately AUD 86 000 is available for allocation. Applicants are encouraged to develop proposals that account for the practical challenges and limitations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications close on 30 October 2020.  Applications will only be accepted from ACAP Parties, and may be submitted in English, French or Spanish.  Applicants will be advised of the outcome of their applications by 28 February 2021.  Click here to access detailed  information and the 2020 application form available in all three ACAP official languages..

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 September 2020

Black--browed Albatross on France's Kerguelen Island, photograph by Deborah Pardo

Samantha Patrick (School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Oikos showing that coordination of incubation bouts decreases through the lifetime of Black‐browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Biparental care is widespread in avian species.  Individuals may match the contribution of their partner, resulting in equal parental effort, or may exploit their partner, to minimise their own investment.  These two hypotheses have received much theoretical and empirical attention in short‐lived species, that change mates between seasons.  However, in species with persistent pair bonds, where divorce rate is low and costly, selective pressures are different, as partners share the value of future reproduction.  In such species, coordination has been suggested to be adaptive and to increase early in life, as a consequence of the importance of mate familiarity.  However, as birds age, an increase in re‐pairing probability occurs in parallel to a decline in their survival probability.  At the point when partners no longer share future reproductive success, exploitation of a partner could become adaptive, reducing selection for coordinated effort.  As such, we suggest that coordination in parental effort will decline with age in long‐lived species.  Using incubation bout duration data, estimated from salt‐water immersion bio‐loggers, deployed on black‐browed albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris, we examined the correlation in incubation bout durations for sequential bouts, as a measure of coordination.  Our results show that coordination is highest in inexperienced pairs (early in reproductive life) and declines throughout the lifetime of birds.  This suggests that both cooperation, indicated by coordinated effort, and conflict over care occurs in this species.  We find no change in bout duration with increasing breeding experience, and hence no support for the hypothesis that aging leads to changes in individual incubation behaviour.  This is, to our knowledge, the first study to demonstrate strong coordination in parental care when pairs share future reproductive success, but a decline in coordination with age, as sexual conflict increases.”

Reference:

Patrick, S.C., Corbeau, A., Réale, D. & Weimerskirch, H. 2020.  Coordination in parental effort decreases with age in a long‐lived seabird.  Oikos doi.org/10.1111/oik.07404.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 September 2020

Jennifer Urmston in the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve on Oahu

Jennifer Urmston is currently a Masters student in marine science in David Hyrenbach’s Pelagicos Lab at the Hawai'i Pacific University on the island of Oahu.  Her thesis research examines fallout of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (WTSH) or ‘Ua‘u kani Ardenna pacifica after a change in highway lighting in south-east Oahu.  She plans to defend her thesis next month.

Jennifer was also a Directorate Fellow with the US Fish and Wildlife Service during the northern summer this year, when she worked on a project to document Wedge-tailed Shearwater colonies on Oahu.  She writes: “the ‘Ua‘u kani is one of the most abundant seabird species on the Hawaiian Islands.  Conservation measures including pest control, habitat restoration, and artificial nesting habitat have increased ‘Ua‘u kani populations at some well-managed colonies by up to 400%.  However, the urbanization of the islands poses a number of threats to these birds.”

A Wedge-tailed Shearwater flies over roped-off breeding habitat on Popoia Island, a State of Hawaii Division of Forestry & Wildlife Seabird Sanctuary off the east coast of Oahu

By collaborating with partners who monitor the island’s colonies, Jennifer updated the colony atlas for WTSH on Oahu with the most recent population counts and colony information.  She also created an ArcGIS web map to display the colonies and data layers of conservation concern.  The story map provides background on Oahu’s Wedge-tailed Shearwaters and introduces the interactive web map.  She hopes that the information about WTSH colonies in a web map can help prevent future disturbance to colonies.

"Blinded by the Light: Shearwater Attraction to Artificial Light along Kalanianaole Highway" – a lecture by Jennifer Urmston for the Hanauma Bay Education Program

As well being a budding marine ornithologist, Jennifer can bake a mean banana mango albicake.  She also has artistic skills, as witnessed by her collage of a Laysan Albatross constructed from marine debris.

“Kaena Point Cake” by Jennifer Urmston for the World Albatross Day Great Albicake Bake Off

Jennifer’s “Laysan Albatross – marine debris collage”

With thanks to Jennifer Urmston for information and photographs.

References:

Urmston, J. 2020.  Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (‘Ua‘u kani) on O‘ahu, Hawai‘i,  Seabird Conservation on an Urbanized Tropical Island.  Story Map.

Urmston, J., Hyrenbach, K.D., Carstenn, S. & Swindle, K. 2020.  Quantifying environmental and anthropogenic drivers of Wedge-tailed Shearwater fallout on a coastal highway on east Oahu.  Pacific Seabird Group 47th Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon, 12 - 15 February 2020.  Book of Abstracts.  p. 84.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 September 2020