Traps equipped with SmartTrap technology await deployment next to a White-chinned Petrel artificial burrow on New Island

Vulnerable White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis breed in very small numbers on New Island in the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)* as recently reported in ACAP Latest News.  Prior to an attempt by the New Island Restoration Project (NIRP) to eradicate the island’s rodents and feral cats, efforts have been made to protect the colony by installing artificial burrows.  Further on-site protection now comes from the use of SmartTrap technology (a biosecurity wireless monitoring system), as the NIRP reports on its Facebook page.

Sending a message: part of the ‘SmartTrap’ set up on New Island

“We've just installed brand-new ‘smart traps’ at the White-chinned Petrel colony here on New Island.  These traps are a game-changer in our mission to protect this small and vulnerable colony, which is on the brink of local extinction and is threatened by predation from invasive mammals.

Equipped with advanced technology from Econode New Zealand, these traps send instant notifications when triggered, allowing us to respond quickly and efficiently.  This will improve the chances of White-chinned Petrels successfully raising chicks through to fledging.

A huge thank you to Biodiversity Challenge Funds for funding the purchase of this equipment and supporting our efforts to conserve New Island's unique biodiversity.”

After dark: a White-chinned Petrel at the mouth of its artificial burrow on New Island

Reference:

Reid, T., Lecoq, M, & Catry, P. 2007.  The White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis population of the Falkland Islands.  Marine Ornithology 35: 57-60.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 28 November 2024

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

 A view of Lord Howe Island, photograph by Ian Hutton

Lord Howe Island is a World Heritage natural property situated some 600 km off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, in the Tasman Sea.  In 2019 the Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Project saw the end of the island's introdiced rodents (click here).  Now five years on the island is blossoming with rediscoveries and recoveries of birds (such as the Black-winged Petrel Pterodroma nigripennis and Providence Petrel P. solandri), invertebrates and plants, many endemic to the island, as described and illustrated in a recent online article.

27 November 2024

The graphical abstract from the paper. 

Jamie Darby (School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Current Biology on the impact of extreme weather on the foraging success of albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Knowledge of how animals respond to weather and changes in their physical environment is increasingly important, given the higher frequency of extreme weather recorded in recent years and its forecasted increase globally.^1,2 Even species considered to be highly adapted to extremes of weather, as albatrosses are to strong winds,^3,4,5 may be disadvantaged by shifts in those extremes. Tracked albatrosses were shown recently to avoid storms and the strongest associated winds.⁶ The drivers of this response are so far unknown, though we hypothesize that turbulent storm conditions restrict foraging success, possibly by reducing the detectability or accessibility of food, and albatrosses divert toward more profitable conditions where possible. We tested the impact of the physical environment—wind speed, rainfall, water clarity, and time of day—on feeding activity and success of two species of albatrosses with contrasting foraging strategies. We tracked 33 wandering and 48 black-browed albatrosses from Bird Island (South Georgia) with GPS and immersion loggers, and 19 and 7 individuals, respectively, with stomach-temperature loggers to record ingestions, providing an in-depth picture of foraging behavior. Reduced foraging profitability (probability of prey capture and overall mass) was associated with stormy conditions, specifically strong winds and heavy rain in surface-seizing wandering albatrosses, and the probability of prey capture was reduced in strong winds in black-browed albatrosses. We show that even highly wind-adapted species may frequently encounter conditions that make foraging difficult, giving context to storm avoidance in albatrosses.”

Reference:

Darby, J., Phillips, R.A., Weimerskirch, H., Wakefield, E.D., Xavier, J.X., Pereira, J.M., Patrick, S.C. Strong winds reduce foraging success in albatrosses, Current Biology, 2024, ISSN 0960-9822, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.018

A video abstract has also been produced for this paper and can be viewed at the link to the paper above.

26 November 2024

Sooty Albatross by Shary Page Weckwerth for World Albatross Day 2020, after a photograph by Michelle Risi

Aymeric Fromant (Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers en Bois, France) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series on tracking Endangered Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria fusca in the southern Indian Ocean in relation to the presence of fishing vessels.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Recent developments in assessing species-specific seabird bycatch risks have demonstrated that fine-scale approaches are essential tools to quantify interactions with fishing vessels and to understand attraction and attendance behaviours.  Matching boat movement with bird tracking data specifically allows us to investigate seabird–fisheries interactions for cryptic species for which on-board information is critically lacking.  The sooty albatross Phoebetria fusca overlaps with fisheries throughout its range and is known to be vulnerable to incidental bycatch.  Combining radar detectors, GPS and behavioural data from individuals from the Crozet Islands and boat locations during the incubation period, we investigated interactions of sooty albatrosses with fisheries in the southern Indian Ocean.    Individuals foraged mostly in sub-tropical international waters, where they only encountered a small number of boats, all reporting to the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The low interaction rate during this period may suggest that sooty albatrosses are not strongly attracted to fishing vessels, and that attraction rates may vary between populations.  However, this result should be interpreted with caution due to the low sample size and fishing effort during the study period, as these observations may conceal a higher bycatch risk during intense fishing effort and/or energetically demanding periods. The conservation status of this species requires further data to be collected throughout the annual cycle to provide an accurate assessment of the threat.”

With thanks to Karine Delord.

Reference:

Fromant, A., Collet, J., Vansteenberghe, C., Musseau, R., Filippi, D., Delord, K. & Barbraud, C. 2024.  Fine-scale behaviour and population estimates of endangered sooty albatross suggest low exposure (while not excluding high sensitivity) to bycatch.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 749: 181–192.

25 November 2024