A Chatham Albatross; photo by Ross Wheeler

BirdLife’s Seabird Tracking Database (SBTD), a pioneering online data resource, is celebrating 20 years of collaboration for marine conservation.

From identifying critical habitats for seabirds, to being instrumental in mapping seabird interactions with fisheries, the Seabird Tracking Database has been central to the success of many marine conservation initiatives. 

To mark this significant milestone, a new study highlighting the achievements of the SBTD has been published open access in the journal, Biological Conservation. 

Ana Carneiro, lead author of the paper and Marine Science Manager at BirdLife International said: “The Seabird Tracking Database is a testament to the remarkable global collaboration among seabird scientists. Thanks to their willingness to share data, the STDB has not only deepened our scientific understanding of seabird ecology but has also driven tangible conservation outcomes, helping to protect threatened seabird populations worldwide.”

With its approximately 43 million location records and 55,000 tracks from 168 seabird species in 55 countries, the SBTD has been an instrumental resource for scientists, researchers and policymakers in their efforts to conserving one of the most threatened groups of vertebrates in the world.

However, gaps remain, particularly in tracking non-breeding adults and juveniles, and from underrepresented regions like the Pacific archipelagos, south of the Indian Ocean, and along species-rich coastlines. Addressing these gaps is the next phase for the SBTD which aims to expand species coverage and strengthen collaboration with other databases and initiatives. 

As seabirds face mounting challenges, including emerging threats such as offshore wind farms and the expansion of mesopelagic fishing, the STDB remains a vital tool in the conservation of seabirds.

Read BirdLife’s blog post on this significant milestone, or find the open access paper, The BirdLife Seabird Tracking Database: 20 years of collaboration for marine conservation, in the journal, Biological Conservation.

11 November 2024

Ground bait station sites on St Agnes and connected Gugh Islands during the rodent eradication operation

St Agnes is one five inhabited islands in the United Kingdom’s Isles of Scilly.  Following the eradication of Norway Rats Rattus norvegicus by a ground-baiting campaign a decade ago, both Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus and European Storm Petrels Hydrobates pelagicus have been recorded breeding, signalling a successful operation (click here).  But this is not the end of the story.  It is necessary to put and keep in place best-practice biosecurity measures at points of entry that will greatly reduce the risk of reintroductions – and continue to keep a look out for signs of rodents elsewhere on the island.  A recent report from St Agnes nicely illustrates the problem as repeated here.

Manx Shearwater chick at its burrow entrance on St Agnes, photograph by Jaclyn Pearson

“Conservationists on an island 28 miles off the UK mainland are concerned after signs there may may be a mouse there, potentially putting a colony of seabirds at risk.  Mice and rats have been eradicated from St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly, as part of measures to protect its nationally significant population of storm petrels.  The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust said “probable” signs of a mouse including droppings and urine had been spotted, and suspects the creature was brought in within some animal feed.

The trust has been running a successful program with the RSPB and others to get rid of rodents on the islands for the past decade, which has led to the petrel population "bouncing back.  Tony Whitehead, from the RSPB, said it had a "very well worked out response" which involved putting rodent poison in traps across the island and "then keep checking the traps".

He said if "mice do get a hold on the island" they would be likely to eat the eggs of birds like storms petrels and Manx shearwaters, putting populations at risk. Mr Whitehead said a member of the community had spotted the mouse droppings last Thursday.

The residents of the island have been brilliant and hugely supportive.  The wildlife trust said signs had been put up across St Agnes to warn parents of young children and dog owners about traps.”

Read earlier  articles in ACAP Latest News on the rat eradication operation on the Isles of Scilly.

With thanks to Anton Wolfaardt, Mouse-Free Marion Project.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 11 November 2024

“"When three-people-are-needed-to-get-a-Black Petrel-out-of-a-burrow”, photograph from the article by Elizabeth Bell

Elizabeth Bell (Wildlife Management International Ltd, Blenheim, New Zealand has written on the Vulnerable and ACAP-listed Black Petrels Procellaria parkinsoni that breed on Aotea/Great Barrier Island in the online oublication, Pacific Seabirds.  She writes “WMIL has been working at the main colony around the summit Hirakimata/Mt Hobson, monitoring 482 study burrows within the 35-ha study site each breeding season.  This work can involve incredible gymnastics, putting one arm down into a burrow while trying not to slide down banks, lying over and under trees or rocks and being very tolerant of painful bites and scratches.”

A Black Petrel pair, photograph by Elizabeth Bell

“During the 2023/24 breeding season, 63.5% of the study burrows were occupied by breeding pairs, 12% occupied by non-breeding birds, and 24.5% were unoccupied during our visits (with over 50% of those unoccupied burrows showing no evidence of activity at all, i.e., blocked up, no feathers, scent of guano, etc.).  Overall, 222 chicks were produced from the study burrows representing a fledgling success rate of 72.5%.”

Read more about the study in her illustrated article.

Reference:

Bell, E.  2024.  Tākoketai/Black Petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni) on Aotea/Great Barrier Island, Aotearoa New Zealand.  Pacific Seabirds 51(2).

07 November 2024

The Critically Endangered Newell’s Shearwater Puffinus newelli, one of the species featured in the publication, photograph by Lindsay Young

David Ainley (HT Harvey & Associates, Los Gatos, California, USA) and colleagues have published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on ‘floating’ adult seabirds that are able to breed but choose not to.  “Floaters are individuals in a population that are physiologically mature and able to breed but do not because they lack suitable breeding habitat, lack mates, or are dissuaded by the presence of predators.”

The paper’s abstract follows:

“'Floating' portions of seabird populations (mature but non-breeding individuals) are generally ignored in seabird research and management despite frequent evidence of their existence, especially in cavity-nesting species for whom nest habitat is often limiting. Here we demonstrate, using a few among an appreciable number of cases, that often more adults contribute to regional populations than colony-based censuses reveal, and that these birds are able to breed but do not. Once given the chance through the creation of nesting habitat, either by natural or human-caused processes, these populations reveal themselves by occupying the newly created habitats to become breeders. We include a brief discussion of the degree to which natal philopatry contributes to relatively sudden colony establishment. Not recognizing the existence of floating populations due to exclusively colony-based management, which is often politically necessary (e.g., Wildlife Refuge management), hinders conservation because it ignores the source and role of potential immigrants. Instead, management tends to emphasize supposed natal philopatry. Floaters will exploit mortality-caused vacancies in a breeding population, masking temporal variation in adult mortality, falsely indicating colony-size stability as a measure of the ‘health' or resilience of a colony/habitat. In addition, the most successful efforts at establishing new colonies or restoring others by ‘social attraction' are those in which a floating population is present, although unrecognized until it is revealed by the social attraction ‘experiment.' Success comes when the artificially established breeding aggregation becomes an attractant to ‘floaters.' Thus, recruitment of these floaters (especially on a predator-free colony or island) accelerates the limited growth provided by the return of hand-raised translocated nestlings. A lack of appreciation for the presence of floaters also limits the validity of assessments of the impact of bird wrecks and the ability of populations."

Reference:

Ainley, D.G., Divoky, G.J., Baird, P. & Spencer, G.C. 2024.  ‘Floating populations’ of seabirds: the bane of demographic modelers and managers.  Marine Ornithology 52: 379-386.

06 November 2024