Jennifer Lavers (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Battery Point, Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published on the globally Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes in Western Australia in the journal Bird Conservation International.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Seabirds face diverse threats on their breeding islands and while at sea. Human activities have been linked to the decline of seabird populations, yet over-wintering areas typically receive little or no protection. Adult survival rates, a crucial parameter for population persistence in long-lived species, tend to be spatially or temporally restricted for many seabird species, limiting our understanding of factors driving population trends at some sites. We used bio-loggers to study the migration of Western Australian Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes carneipes and estimated adult survival over five years. Western Australia is home to around 35% of the world’s breeding Flesh-footed Shearwaters, a population which was up-listed to Vulnerable in 2015. During the austral winter, shearwaters migrated across the central Indian Ocean to their non-breeding grounds off western Sri Lanka. Low site fidelity on breeding islands, mortality of adult birds at sea (e.g. fisheries bycatch), and low annual breeding frequency likely contributed to the low estimated annual adult survival (2011–2015: ϕ = 0.634-0.835).”

Flesh-footed Shearwater, photograph by Tim Reid

Reference:

Lavers, J.L., Lisovski, S. & Bond, A.L. 2018.  Preliminary survival and movement data for a declining population of Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes in Western Australia provides insights into marine threats.  Bird Conservation International doi.org/10.1017/S0959270918000084.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 September 2018

Harriet Paterson (University of Western Australia, Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, Albany, Australia) and Nick Dunlop have published open access in the journal Marine Ornithology on the paucity of plastic pollution in globally Near Threatened Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes are declining globally, and exposure to plastic pollution may be a contributing factor. To investigate the exposure of the southwestern Australian population to plastic, under the assumption that fragments would be defecated by burrow occupants or occasionally spilled as parents regurgitate food to their young, and samples were collected from nesting burrows from Shelter and Breaksea islands and examined for plastic fragments. One fragment was found among a total of 67 burrows inspected. The lack of plastics may be due to the feeding habits of these birds, or the availability of plastics related to local oceanography. Our study provides evidence that plastics may not yet be an issue for nesting Flesh-footed Shearwaters on the south coast of Western Australia.”

Flesh-footed Shearwater, photograph by Barry Baker

Reference:

Paterson, H.L. & Dunlop, J.N. 2018.  Minimal plastic in flesh-footed shearwater Ardenna carneipes burrows at southwestern Australia colonies.  Marine Ornithology 46: 165-167.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 September 2018

Sasa Otovic (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Battery Point, Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Marine Ornithology on Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus (Least Concern) observed by automated cameras.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“We report the first results from a 3-year study of the annual cycle of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus in two colonies in East Antarctica. We tested the utility of a system of automated cameras that monitored and recorded events in the colonies year-round. Based on the collected images, we determined a detailed phenology of breeding events and activities throughout winter. The timing of some portions of the annual cycle (e.g., laying dates) were similar, whereas other aspects of the annual cycle differed between locations (e.g., pair formation and length of the non-brooding guard phase). Comparisons with other breeding locations throughout the species' range showed that lay dates vary with latitude but are synchronous at each site.”

A Southern Giant Petrel in East Antarctica, photograph by Jeroen Creuwels

Reference:

Otovic, S., Riley, M., Hay, I., McKinlay, J., Van Den Hoff, J. & Wienecke, B. 2018. The annual cycle of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus in East Antarctica. Marine Ornithology 46: 129-138 + appendix.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 September 2018

“If I were Bill Gates, this is where I would put my money” said Peter Ryan, Director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at South Africa’s University of Cape Town.  The A-rated ornithologist and University Fellow presented a plenary talk entitled Seabird Conservation - a Southern Hemisphere Perspective at this month’s 27th International Ornithological Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

In his presentation Professor Ryan referred to the Marion Mouse Free project that aims to eradicate the introduced House Mice Mus musculus that are killing ACAP-listed albatrosses and other seabirds at South Africa’s sub-Antarctic island (click here), encouraging support for BirdLife South Africa’s  “adopt a hectare” fund-raising scheme to support the initiative to get rid of the mice.

Mouse attack!  A scalped Wandering Albatross chick on Marion Island, photograph by Stefan Schoombie

Read more here. Also watch a video.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 August 2018