Westland Petrel fallout victim near Greymouth

New Zealand’s endemic globally Endangered and ACAP-listed Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica breeds only in a single locality near the community of Punakaiki on the west coast of South Island.  Fledglings heading for sea at night become disoriented by the street lights in Punakaiki and crash-land on the roads, where they are often severely injured, struck by cars or eaten by predators.  To reduce this a trial project has led to bright LED lights being switched off along a 3.4-km section of the state highway for two months from 8 November to 8 January during which time fledging occurs (click here).

The Westland Petrel Conservation Trust reports that “turning off the street lights this fledgling season has proven to be a great success for the Westland petrels. This year was proposed as a pilot run, but with such positive results we're optimistic that it can become a permanent solution.”  With the street lighting turned off in Punakaiki, 10 of the birds had crash landed there, instead of the usual 15 to 25, according to one report.

However, the trust also says that although the problem has been lessened in Punakaiki, it was now worse 44 km farther south in the town of Greymouth where highway lights have not been switched off.  The Department of Conservation (DOC) has so far found 22 downed petrels in Greymouth of which “17 were able to be released, four were found dead and one was euthanised”.  This is about twice the usual number picked up “10 being the highest number previously, and for the first time they were found in the centre of town”.

Most downings in Greymouth are considered linked to lighting, including lights on businesses and other private properties.  “Where petrels have come down … we have talked with property owners and others with lights in the area to ask about lights being turned off, where possible.”  LED streetlights were introduced in Greymouth last year.  A spokesperson for the district council said it was looking into whether it was possible to turn the lights down or change the colour tone to orange (click here).

A Westland Petrel in its burrow

Photographs by Bruce Stuart-Menteath, Chair, Westland Petrel Conservation Trust

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 January 2021

In 2019 the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels declared that a conservation crisis continues to be faced by its 31 listed species, with thousands of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters dying every year as a result of fisheries operations.  To increase awareness of this crisis ACAP inaugurated a World Albatross Day, to be held annually on 19 June.  In early 2020 Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) artists produced artworks illustrating the 22 albatross species that were used to support ‘WAD2020’.

This year as a separate exercise to this year’s planned World Albatross Day activities, which will once more be centred on albatrosses, ACAP has asked ABUN to paint the nine ACAP-listed petrels and shearwaters*.  ABUN Project #35: Painting Petrels in Peril starts today and will run for two months to the end of February.  As in 2020 ACAP will be hugely grateful for the support it continues to receive from the ABUN artists and will use the artworks to illustrate website posts, to make freely downloadable high-quality posters and for other ACAP products.

To be painted soon?  A Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea, Rapa Island, French Polynesia, photograph by Hadoram Shirihai

With thanks to ABUN founder Kitty Harvill and all those who have made their photographs available to inspire the artists.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 4 January 2021

*Southern Giant Petrel, Northern Giant Petrel, Spectacled Petrel, Grey Petrel, Black Petrel, Westland Petrel, White-chinned Petrel, Pink-footed Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater.

 A Laysan Albatross within the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge; photograph by Jacqueline Olivera

The Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on the Hawaiian island of Kauai supported a total of 116 pairs of Laysan Albatrosses or Mōlī Phoebastria immutabilis in the 2019/20 breeding season, from which 44 chicks fledged to give a breeding success of 37.9%.  Introduced predators such as feral cats and pigs likely contributed to this low percentage, confirming the need for a new predator-proof fence (click here).

Latest news from the national wildlife refuge’s Facebook page is that there are 126 Mōlī nests within the refuge this season, ten more than in the previous season.  Let’s hope breeding success inceases as well.  In the 2018/19 season 121 active nests were counted in December.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 January 2020

"French ring BS-28275 on an adult Tristan Albatross on Gough Island in 2017", photograph by David Kinchin-Smith

Alex Bond (Bird Group, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Tring, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Polar Biology on a Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena that visited the Crozet Islands before returning to Gough Island to breed.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Albatrosses and other seabirds are generally highly philopatric, returning to natal colonies when they achieve breeding age. This is not universal, however, and cases of extraordinary vagrancy are rare. The Tristan Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) breeds on Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with a small population on Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha, ca 380 km away. In 2015, we observed an adult male albatross in Gonydale, Gough Island, which had been ringed on Ile de la Possession, Crozet Islands in 2009 when it was assumed to be an immature Wandering Albatross (D. exulans). We sequenced 1109 bp of the cytochrome b mitochondrial gene from this bird, and confirmed it to be a Tristan Albatross, meaning its presence on Crozet 6 years previous, and nearly 5000 km away, was a case of prospecting behaviour in a heterospecific colony. Given the challenges in identifying immature Diomedea albatrosses, such dispersal events may be more common than thought previously.”

"An adult male Tristan Albatross breeding on Gough Island in 2015 with French ring BS28275 visible on the left leg", photograph by Derren Fox

With thanks to Robert Vagg.  Photographs are from the publication.

Reference:

Bond, A.L., Taylor, C., Kinchin-Smith, D., Fox, D., Witcutt, E., Ryan, P.G., Loader, S.P. & Weimerskirch, H. 2020.  A juvenile Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) on land at the Crozet Islands. Polar Biology doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02786-0.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 January 2020