An adult Black Petrel rests on the surface at its forest breeding site

NOTE:  This post continues an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Elizabeth ‘Biz’ Bell of Wildlife Management Ltd writes with feeling of the Black Petrel or Tākoketai Procellaria parkinsoni (both globally and nationally Vulnerable), which she has studied and photographed at its main breeding site in New Zealand for a quarter of a century.

‘Biz’ Bell carefully restrains a Black Petrel during burrow checks, May 2020; photograph by Paul Garner-Richards, Wildlife Management International

Established by my father, the late Brian Bell QSM in 1992, Wildlife Management International Ltd (WMIL) specialises in seabird research and island restoration around the world.  I now manage WMIL, supported by a team of excellent and passionate ecologists.  We undertake research on several seabirds (including ACAP-listed species) and other bird species to determine their demographics, behaviour and population status and trends, as well as eradicating invasive mammals as part of the New Zealand Predator Free 2050 vision and on islands around the world to protect seabirds and other resident native species.  The Tākoketai/Black Petrel project is one of the longest running seabird research studires still being undertaken by WMIL.

I started working with Tākoketai/Black Petrels on Aotea/Great Barrier Island in 1996 when the late Mike Imber asked me to start a population monitoring project to help determine the status and trends of this iconic New Zealand species.  Little did I know then that I would be still walking up Hirakimata/Mount Hobson each summer over 25 years later and planning to keep doing those trips as long as I physically can.  These birds get under your skin and their personalities and charisma are magic – making it easy to charm fishers and fishing industry management about their importance and of the need to protect them at sea with suitable mitigation measures.

Banding a Black Petrel chick, with help from visiting fishers, May 2021

Visiting the Tākoketai/Black Petrel colony throughout the breeding season means we get the whole picture of their behaviour throughout from pre-egg laying pair bonding to egg laying, incubation, chick rearing and watching the chicks take their maiden flights as they fledge. Following adults as they carefully nurture an egg or small chick is wonderful; how they carefully roll the egg into position and settle on the egg or snuggle the chick underneath them for warmth and safety.  Or the cheek of little unguarded chicks practicing their aggressive moves by honking and snapping at the torch light as we check their status in the breeding burrows, often having to remove small chicks or eggs from the burrow for safety, keeping them warm in field hats, while we check adults for bands.

A Black Petrel is fitted with a back-mounted satellite tracker in October 2020

We have also been adding a range of tracking devices to the birds – through all age classes and at all stages of the breeding cycle as well as on migration to South American waters for the non-breeding over-wintering period.  Data from these devices have helped us understand Tākoketai/Black Petrel behaviour at sea, including the discovery that they can dive up to 34 m while foraging, where they forage during the breeding season, and the migration routes to South American waters followed by both adults and fledglings.  This information can help us determine areas of risk from commercial and recreational fishers and other environmental factors (including climate change and pollution events) within the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone, international high seas and in South American waters.

A Black Petrel pair revealed by flash at night

The field work on Aotea is a real mixture of peering into simple, accessible burrows to others that require inserting most of your body, or multiple people working through individual entrances to reach the resident parent or chick.  The island, terrain on the mountain, burrow types, interesting vegetation, and the special nature of the birds themselves makes it impossible not to have a wide range of images, interactions, and crazy memories collected over the course of the long-term study.  It is indeed both a real privilege and a pleasure to be working on Hirakimata/Mount Hobson to understand the behaviour, population dynamics and status of Tākoketai/Black Petrel on behalf of Ngāti Rehua Ngāti Wai ki Aotea and the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

A downy Black Petrel chick in its burrow, photographs by ‘Biz’ Bell

Selected Publications:

Bell, E.A. 2016.  Diving behaviour of black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni) in New Zealand waters and its relevance to fisheries interaction.  Notornis 63: 57-65 63: 57-65.

Freeman, R., Dennis, T., Landers, T., Thompson, D., Bell, E., Walker, M. & Guilford, T. 2010.  Black Petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni) patrol the ocean shelf-break: GPS tracking of a Vulnerable procellariiform seabird. PLoS ONE  5(2): e9236. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009236.

Gaskin, C.P., Harrison, P., Baird, K.A., Cunninghame, F., Ismar, S.F.H. & Bell, E.A. 2016.  An opportunistic sighting of a flock of black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni) at Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.  Notornis  63: 54-56.

Imber, M.J., McFadden, I., Bell, E.A. & Scofield, R.P. 2003. Post-fledging migration, age of first return and recruitment, and results of inter-colony translocation of black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni).  Notornis 50: 183-190.

Mischler, C.P., Bell, E.A., Landers, T.J. & Dennis, T.E. 2015.  Sex determination of black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni) using morphometric measurements and discriminant function analysis.  Notornis  62: 57-62.

Quinones, J., Calderon, J., Mayaute, L. & Bell, E. 2020.  Black petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni) congregations at sea off Perú during the Austral summer.  Notornis  67: 573-576.

Zhang, J., Dennis, T.E., Landers, T.J., Bell, E. & Perry, G.L. 2017.  Linking individual-based and statistical inferential models in movement ecology: a case study with black petrels (Procellaria parkinsoni).  Ecological Modelling  360: 425-436.

Elizabeth ‘Biz’ Bell, Wildlife Management International Ltd., Blenheim, New Zealand, 01 October 2021

 Danielle Keys holds a Wandering Albatross chick at its nest in the Goney Plain Monitoring Colony on Marion Island.  A special permit is required to allow access to the colony and to handle the birds for research purposes; photograph by Leandri de Kock

“I have always been mesmerized by the ocean and the life in it.  Science allows us to unlock some of the ocean's secrets and helps us understand more about our world.  We can only protect what we understand.”

From a young age, I always wanted to find ways to help the ocean, so starting a career in marine biology was the obvious choice for me.   I have always been passionate about marine life and understanding why animals respond in particular ways.  I have also been drawn to the adventure and the possibility of discovering new things which is why I love working in the field.  I have been incredibly blessed to have been able to work on seabirds on several island for my postgraduate degrees, including Cape Gannets Morus capensis on Bird Island, Eastern Cape, South Africa (BSc Honours cum laude in 2015 - using tracking and video data) and on the foraging ecology of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Ardenna pacifica on Reunion, and D'Arros and Fouquet Islands, Amirante Group belonging to the Seychelles during 2016-2018 (MSc cum laude).

Danielle holds at Wedge-tailed Shearwater on Fouquet Island; photograph by Luke Gordon

On South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island I have worked with basically every seabird that moves undertaking tracking, monitoring, diet sampling and camera work as a member of the M75 and M77 Overwintering Teams of 2018/19 and 2020/21.  In between studies I have been able to work with other marine species including seals, turtles, corals and seals and even moved to drier parts (i.e. terrestrial fields) working with hornbills.  I have quickly been turned into an avid birder, while learning more about behavioural ecology and physiology.

A Wandering Albatross pair on Marion Island.  The larger, whiter bird is on the nest, the the female beside him.

We know that nothing happens in isolation.  Where an animal forages, and the amount of time it spends performing a particular behaviour, will impact its life history.  This is the general premise for my PhD “Linking Foraging Behaviour and Demographic Responses of Wandering Albatrosses on Marion Island” at the Marine Apex Predator Research Unit (MAPRU) at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, South Africa, with Prof. Pierre Pistorius, Prof. Peter Ryan and Dr Chris Oosthuizen as my supervisors.  My aim is to assess the extent to which variability in foraging behaviour affects life history and demographic rates of Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans (globally and regionally Vulnerable) on Marion.  This will be done by looking at how adult flight characteristics (e.g. trip duration and path length from six years of at-sea GPS tracking data) influence chick growth and survival.  The second aim is to assess the impacts of environmental variability and the demographic responses (survival and breeding success) of Marion’s Wanderers.  Here I will largely rely on the long-term demographic data (>37 years) to see how climate variability impacts their survival and breeding success.  We already know that fisheries have a really big impact on albatross populations; however, I will try to find what else influences their survival and breeding success.

Incoming!  A young bird joins a “gam” of pre-breeding juveniles for a group display

For now, I am homebound, and only volunteering occasionally where I can at the SANCCOB EC Marine Rehabilitation Centre and will hopefully finish my PhD over the next three years.  I would like to push to finish sooner so that I could be a part of the mouse eradication team for Marion Island.  I never knew that a place could steal one's heart like Marion has, and I want to be part of the team that helps restore this little piece of paradise.

Ready to fledge? A feathered Wandering Albatross chick approaches the photographer with determination
Photographs by Danielle Keys

Selected Publications:

Keys, D.Z. 2018.  The foraging ecology of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Ardenna pacifica) in the tropical Western Indian Ocean.  MSc thesis, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa.  103 pp.

Orgeret, F., Reisinger, R.R., Carpenter-Kling, T., Keys, D.Z., Corbeau, A., Bost, C.-A., Weirmerskirch, H. & Pistorius, P.A. 2021.  Spatial segregation in a sexually-dimorphic central place forager: competitive exclusion or niche divergence?  Journal of Animal Ecology doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13552. [click here].

Danielle Keys, Marine Apex Predator Research Unit, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, 30 September 2021

Editorial note:  I set up the three long-term monitoring colonies of colour-banded Wandering Albatrosses on Marion Island back in the early 1980s (when there was a thinking by some that "monitoring" was not really proper work for academics) so it is most pleasing indeed to see young scientists not then born use the ensuing decades of data to earn their doctorates.  It makes me happy.  John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer

 New Zealand band R30655 on the bird’s leg, photograph by Pablo Sena

UPDATE: Read a newspaper article on the recovery in a local newspaper in Spanish.

The remains of a great albatross Diomedea sp. were photographed on the beach of La Serena, Rocha, Uruguay on 16 September this year by Pablo Sena, as first reported to ACAP by Mauricio Silvera.  The bird carried a metal band inscribed R30655, Dominion Museum, New Zealand.

 
The skull of the beached Northern Royal Albatross, photograph by Pablo Sena

Information from the New Zealand National Bird Banding Scheme (NZNBBS) via albatross doyen Christopher Robertson reveals that the bird was a 45-year-old Northern Royal Albatross D. sanfordi (globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon). It was banded as a pre-fledged chick on 10 September 1976 by Chris on The Little or Middle Sister, Rangitatahi, one of three small islands some 16 km off the northern coast of New Zealand’s Chatham Island.  The bird was later confirmed as a male by size and plumage when first recorded back on at its natal island as an 18-year-old in November 1994 incubating an egg, and then again in November 1996, so the assumption is that breeding was successful in 1994, given the species’ biennial breeding habit.

 
Chris Robertson measures an egg besides a Northern Royal Albatross on Little Sister; photograph by Brian Bell

Chris Robertson writes to ACAP Latest News: “The elapsed age of the bird seems reasonably accurate as photos of the wrecked skeleton show the bill to still have attached plates and some colour in the lower mandible”.

With thanks to Sharyn Broni, Marcel Calvar, Christopher Robertson QSM and Mauricio Silvera.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 September 2021, updated 04 October 2021

Saint-Paul Island with La Roche Quille, photograph from Thierry Micol

Christophe Barbraud (Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers en Bois, France) and colleagues have published in the Journal for Nature Conservation on the recovery of France’s Saint Paul Island two decades after the eradication of two introduced mammals.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The eradication of invasive mammals on islands is important for protecting seabird populations and insular ecosystems. However, the impacts of such eradications are insufficiently known because monitoring of potentially beneficiary species is often sporadic and limited. We performed a survey of all seabird species on Saint-Paul Island, southern Indian Ocean, 20 years after successful eradication of invasive black rat (Rattus rattus) and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Using complementary sampling designs including adaptive cluster sampling, stratified random sampling and entire sampling, we estimated population changes and colonization by new seabird species. A total of 13 seabird species were found breeding on Saint-Paul post-eradication compared to six before the eradication. Among the seven species that colonized the island, five (MacGillivray’s prion Pachyptila macgillivrayi, fairy prion P. turtur, white-bellied storm petrel Fregetta grallaria, Antarctic tern Sterna vittata, sooty tern Onychoprion fuscatus) had relictual populations breeding on a nearby islet, and one (brown skua Catharacta antarctica) was a new breeding species. We also found breeding subantarctic little shearwaters Puffinus elegans. For species that were breeding on the Saint Paul pre-eradication, the mean annual population growth rate was 1.030 ± 0.093 (SE). Species known to be vulnerable to rat predation (prions, great-winged petrel Pterodroma macroptera, flesh-footed shearwater Puffinus carneipes, subantarctic little shearwater, white-bellied storm petrel, Antarctic tern) had the highest population growth rates. Two decades after the eradication of invasive mammals on a remote oceanic island, seabird populations were high beneficiaries. These findings further highlight the importance of invasive mammal eradication on islands as a conservation tool. Results are encouraging for the planned eradication of invasive mammals from nearby Amsterdam Island, and suggest this will mainly benefit terns and small burrowing petrels.”

Saint-Paul Island's flooded crater with La Roche Quille behind, photograph by Jeremie Demay

Reference:

Barbraud, C., Delord, K., Le Bouard, F., Harivel, R., Demay, J., Chaigne, A. & Micol, T. 2021.  Seabird population changes following mammal eradication at oceanic Saint-Paul Island, Indian Ocean.  Journal for Nature Conservation 63. doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2021.126049.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 September 2021