Note:  Taken from a news post at the Mouse-Free Marion website, with links added.

One of the donated Bölkow helicopters aboard the Akademik Treshnikov in Cape Town, South Africa after completion of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition, photograph from Peter Ryan (left)

At 29 000 hectares, Marion Island will be the largest island by far on which an attempt will be made to eradicate mice in a single exercise.  Consequently, the logistical, planning and funding demands for the project are substantial.  We are very pleased to report that the project has recently received the first tranche of a US$1 million donation made by Dr Frederik Paulsen Jr and Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

Dr Frederik Paulsen Jr

Dr Paulsen is a businessman, academic, philanthropist and explorer, with a deep interest in the history and science of polar exploration. He is a founding member of the Swiss Polar Institute, established in 2015.  The first project of the Swiss Polar Institute was the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), an international scientific voyage to the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic from December 2016 to March 2017, comprising 60 researchers from 30 different countries to study the impact of climate change on the Southern Ocean.  Dr Paulsen provided logistical and funding support to the ACE, in which he also took part.  His participation in the ACE voyage, which included a visit to Marion Island, was the genesis for Dr Paulsen's interest in the project to save Marion Island's seabirds by eradicating the introduced mice.

The US$ 1 million is not the first contribution that Dr Paulsen has made to the project or to large-scale rodent eradication initiatives on islands more broadly.  Previously, Dr Paulsen contributed substantial funds to help support the operation to rid South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* of invasive rats and mice.  Following the completion of the successful eradication operation … Dr Paulsen donated three Bölkow BO105 helicopters that were used in that operation, along with spares, fuel and US$25 000 to the South African Government for use at Marion Island.

These very generous donations by Dr Paulsen to the Marion project have helped catalyse significant momentum in our preparations and planning for the eradication operation.  They will enable the project to secure dedicated fund-raising capacity and to cover salaries of key project staff, amongst other things.  In addition to his generous funding contributions to the project, Dr Paulsen also serves as a Director of the Mouse-Free Marion Non-Profit Company Board.

Peter Ryan, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape with Frederik Paulsen (right), with one of three donated Bölkow helicopters in Cape Town

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 April 2021

*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.

Northern Giant Petrel by Maureen Bennetts; acrylic on canvas, from a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson 

Javier Quinones ((Oficina de Investigaciones en Depredadores Superiores, Instituto del Mar del Peru, Callao, Peru) and colleagues have published in the journal Notornis on at-sea occurrence of Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli (Least Concern) off Peru.  Their short note concludes that the provided information demonstrates the importance of the Northern Humboldt Current for juvenile Northern Giant Petrels during their wintering season.

Sightings of juvenile Northern Giant Petrels in Perúvian waters (from the publication)

Juvenile Northern Giant Petrels flying and feeding in pelagic oceanic waters off Atico (~16°S) in southern Perú (from the publication)

Reference:

Quinones, J., Romero, C. & Zavalaga, C. 2021.  Vessel survey observations confirm wintering dispersion of northern giant-petrel (Macronectes halli) juveniles in southern-central Perú; what is their origin?  Notornis 68: 76-85.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 April 2021, updated 19 April 2021

Black-browed Albatross at sea, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Javier Quiñones (Oficina de Investigaciones en Depredadores Superiores, Instituto del Mar del Peru, Callao, Peru) and colleagues have published in the journal Ornithology Research on at-sea surveys of the Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris (Least Concern) in Peruvian waters at the northern limit of the species’ range.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) has a circumpolar, well-documented, breeding distribution in the southern hemisphere. However, information on post-breeders and juveniles dispersal is scarce, particularly off western South America. Records off Chile occur commonly as north as ~24°S. Although the presence of the species in Peru is documented, the limited number of records is insufficient to describe the species status on Peruvian waters. To fulfill this gap, we conducted two at-sea surveys during fall and spring 2019 to determine their seasonal distribution, abundance, and habitat preference on Peruvian waters. We recorded sightings along 36 transects from the coast up to 100 nm offshore. We surveyed 7678 km² over 483.7 h of observation, recording 46 individuals in autumn and 4 in spring, occurring only from Callao (12°S) to the southern limit (18°20′S), with the greatest concentration found between 16 and 17°S. Black-browed Albatrosses occurred mainly over the continental slope (5.91 birds/100 km²). The majority of sightings corresponded to adults (63%), whereas sub-adults (37%) were mainly second-year juveniles (67%). The significant drop in density during spring and the large presence of adults during autumn suggests that post-breeders reach southern Peru during their wintering migration, returning to their breeding colonies in southern Chile, next spring. Given the absence of Black-browed Albatrosses north of Callao, we suggest that the northern limit for the species is related to the coastal branch of the Humboldt Current System and competition with the Waved (Phoebastria irrorata) and Salvin’s (Thalassarche salvini) Albatrosses, which are abundant in the warmer waters off central-north Peru.”

Spatial distribution and relative abundances of Black-browed Albatrosses (from the publication)

Reference:

Quiñones, J., Manrique, M. & Arata, J. 2021.  Occurrence of Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) in southern Peru provides clues on their northern limit. Ornithology Research  doi.org/10.1007/s43388-021-00043-4.  See also https://rdcu.be/chYYh.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 April 2021

Flesh-footed Shearwater burrows on Lord Howe Island, photograph by Ian Hutton

Chris Wilcox (CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Scientific Reports on assessing threats facing Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carneipes (Near Threatened) ashore on Lord Howe Island.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Globally, seabird populations have been in decline due to multiple threats throughout their range. Separating simultaneous pressures is challenging and can require significant amounts of data over long periods of time. We use spatial contrasts to investigate the relative importance of several drivers for the purported decline in a species listed as in decline as an example species, the Flesh-footed shearwater (Ardenna carneipes). On Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, Australia, this seabird suffers from habitat loss due to housing development, intensive mortality in fisheries, plastic ingestion, and roadkill due to vehicular traffic on its breeding island. We repeated a quantitative survey of the population to ascertain whether the decline previously reported had continued and to evaluate the purported mortality sources (Reid et al. in PLoS ONE 8(4):e58230, 2013, Lavers et al. in Global Ecol Conserv 17:e00579, 2019). We measured burrow density, area of occurrence, occupancy and breeding success, integrating them with previous surveys using a Bayesian statistical model to generate longer term estimates of demographic rates. We used spatial patterns to test whether mortality on roads or proximity to human habitation was influencing population demographics. In contrast to predictions, we found the population had stabilised or increased. Characteristics such as burrow occupancy and breeding success showed little pattern, with weak evidence for impacts from road mortality and housing development. Such a data-rich approach is substantially more informative and can better support seabird conservation and management efforts does require more field-time and additional equipment than most contemporary surveys, the data is substantially more informative and can better clarify the results of efforts in seabird conservation and management.”

A Flesh-footed Shearwater pair in a breeding colony on Lord Howe Island, photograph by Ian Hutton

Reference:

Wilcox, C., Carlile, N., Hardesty, B.D. & Reid, T. 2021.  Assessing multiple threats to seabird populations using flesh-footed shearwaters Ardenna carneipes on Lord Howe Island, Australia as case study. Scientific Reports doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86702-4.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 April 2021