William Mackin (Guilford College, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA ) has published in the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications on the reduced populations of Audubon’s Shearwaters Puffinus lherminieri in the Caribbean.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Cryptic species are often difficult to count and thus protect.  Audubon's Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) is a cryptic seabird that has disappeared from many colonies, but knowledge of the population's status is incomplete.  This paper reviews the survey methods in detail and assesses the status.  This species nests or once nested on at least 154 islands in the Caribbean and remains on 137 today, with most habitat just above sea level.  Remaining colonies represent 1% of the former breeding area and are remote, with 98 sites lacking any estimate of density.  In 16 plots searched on multiple nights using playback, the probability of detection of defended nests was 79 ± 5% (57 of 72 defended nests) in a single night of searching. Pairs were attempting to breed in 54 ± 6% (39 of 72) of defended nests.  Average densities, adjusted for missed detections, ranged from 0.6 to 246 defended nests ha−1 (n = 21 colonies, median = 18.5 ha−1, area-weighted mean = 104 ha−1).  Using the best data from every colony, at least 13,600 defended nests (7,400 breeding pairs) remain.  If conservative densities from surveyed colonies occur on unsurveyed colonies, then about 37,900 defended nests (20,500 breeding pairs) should exist.  Assuming shearwaters nested on the known extirpated sites in lower densities compared to surveyed colonies, populations were at least 446,000 and potentially >2,000,000 defended nests.  Uncertainty in current population estimates could be reduced by surveying the largest unsurveyed colonies first.   Audubon's Shearwater could be used as an indicator of island and marine ecosystem health with the caveat that the population is a small fraction of its former size. Conservation recommendations include continuing standardized monitoring, surveying large unsurveyed sites, limiting the rise of sea level, and removing invasive species from colonies.”

Audubon's Shearwater at sea

Reference:

Mackin, W.A. 2016.  Current and former populations of Audubon's Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) in the Caribbean region.  The Condor: 118: 655-673.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 October 2016

Junichi Sugishita (Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology on recording meal sizes of Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi chicks with an automatic weighing system.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Periodic weighing of seabird chicks is labour-intensive and repeated handling can cause high levels of disturbance to chicks.  Although automatic weighing systems using a fibreglass nest have been designed for albatross species with a pedestal nest made of mud, this approach is inappropriate for great albatross species (genus Diomedea) whose nests consist of a low mound of soil and vegetation.  We developed an automatic weighing technique, using a digital scale beneath a natural nest, to remotely measure meal size in great albatrosses.  To illustrate the system’s capability when used coupled with time-lapse cameras, we present sample data by comparing meal sizes fed to chicks by male and female parents of northern royal albatross (Diomedea sanfordi).  Our weighing system is not only applicable to other great albatross species, but can also be modified to allow automatic weighing of other terrestrial breeders.”

Junichi Sugishita adjusts his weighing balance underneath a watching Northern Royal Albatross chick

Reference:

Sugishita, J., McKenzie, M. Torres, L.G. & Seddon, P.J. 2017.  Automated techniques for measuring meal size in great albatrosses.  New Zealand Journal of Ecology 41(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.20417/nzjecol.41.6.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 October 2016

The Operations Advisor for the Gough Island Restoration Programme, New Zealander Keith Springer, returned from a visit to Gough Island earlier this month when ACAP Latest News met up with him in a Cape Town Korean restaurant.

Keith has reported on his three-week visit to the island in a blog hosted by the UK’s Royal Society for Bird Preservation. The RSPB is taking the lead in plans to eradicate the island’s “killer” House Mice Mus musculus  which are taking the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena to the edge of extinction.  The mice result in the death of many downy chicks every winter, leading to an unsustainably low breeding success.  A number of other seabird species breeding on the island is known or thought to be seriously affected by mice.

Mice attack a Tristan Albatross chick on Gough at night - it later died from its wounds, photograph by Ross Wanless

In his third and last contribution Keith has good news: “Nothing that I saw on Gough Island would be a show-stopper for the mouse eradication project. There is no doubt in my mind that there will be challenges along the way but planning will help overcome these ”.

Keith considers the challenges of Gough’s isolation in mid-Atlantic, the restricted capacity of the South African weather station and most importantly the island’s often poor and changeable weather can all be overcome and an aerial drop of poison bait by helicopter has a good chance of succeeding.  He ends “all in all it has been a very informative trip.  Once fundraising has got to the point where the project is given the green light to proceed, then planning can begin in earnest.”  Welcome the day!

Read another news item on Keith's trip to Gough here, and read more items in ACAP Latest News on Gough’s mice here.

Keith Springer (centre) with 2004 Gough team members, Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless, in Cape Town after the voyage

Photograph by John Cooper

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 October 2016

Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs) equipped with cameras offer a new and convenient way of surveying colonially-breeding seabirds with less disturbance and more accuracy than by conducting ground counts (click here for an example of their use).

However, flying drones above seabirds (and other wildlife) poses conservation issues.  What minimum height should be used to avoid disturbance from the sight or sound of a moving object overhead?  Also what should be done to reduce the risk of mid-air collisions with flying birds with possible mortalities– and damage to the drone itself?  In addition to the requirement for a code of practice for the use of drones in research and monitoring there is a need to control the use of drones for purely recreational purposes over or near seabird colonies, most especially those that support threatened species.

Most ACAP-listed albatross and petrels breed on uninhabited islands so disturbance caused by recreational drones (most small remotely controlled quadcopters) seems likely to be uncommon.  But colonies of surface-nesting albatrosses close to human populations (such as on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu and on South Island, New Zealand) may be at risk - as shown by a recent example from Taiaroa Head in New Zealand where Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi breed when a drone was found crash landed within five metres of an albatross nest site.

A Northern Royal Albatross guards its chick at Taiaroa Head, photograph  by Lyndon Perriman

“The Department of Conservation [DOC] are concerned about drones being flown over the royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Head after one crashed there last week.  DOC said the drone crash came as the number of tourists and locals using drones at the colony of the endangered bird had increased over the last year.  The crashed drone, a white and silver DJI Phantom 3 advanced model, was found undamaged within the colony on Thursday last week by DOC ranger Lyndon Perriman.  In the second incident within a week, Mr Perriman spoke to the owner of a drone being flown around the car park beside the Albatross Centre.

As a result the Otago Peninsula Trust had erected temporary signs in the car park saying drones were not allowed in the area, with permanent signs will be erected soon”.

All aircraft, including drones, are restricted from using the airspace above the Taiaroa Head albatross colony, a nature reserve with public entry by permit only, as they could disturb wildlife and be a hazard to visitors.  Recreational and commercial use of drones on or over public conservation land and waters of New Zealand requires authorisation from DOC; drone operators are also required to abide by Civil Aviation rules, including not operating in restricted airspace.  Breaching of regulations could lead to prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to NZ$100 000.

Lyndon Perriman ho0olds up the no-fly zone sign

Read more:

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/drone-concerns-albatross-colony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBHY-wi1BRM&app=desktop

http://www.doc.org.nz/news/media-releases/2016/drone-found-within-albatross-colony/

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 October 2016