---
title: "Wedgies get a wing up from a rugby team.  Alien mammals are successfully removed from three Pacific homes of the Wedge-tailed Shearwater"
---

# Wedgies get a wing up from a rugby team.  Alien mammals are successfully removed from three Pacific homes of the Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Wedge-tailed Shearwaters *Puffinus pacificus* have been identified as a potential candidate species for listing within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  Their conservation status on three islands at two widely-separated localities in the Pacific Ocean has been recently improved by the removal of introduced mammalian predators.

 The Fijian islands of [Monuriki ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monuriki)and Kadomo in the [Mamanuca island chain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamanuca_Islands) have been cleared of two species of introduced mammals.  The [National Trust of Fiji](http://www.nationaltrust.org.fj/) Islands and BirdLife International's [Fiji Programme](http://www.birdlife.org/regional/pacific/fiji_programme.html) have jointly carried out a complex operation to rid the two islands permanently of feral goats and rats *Rattus*sp..

 "For the goats, those that could be mustered and caught - by the local Yanuya Rugby Team - were taken to the mainland, while all remaining animals were later eliminated by professional hunters from New Zealand using trained sniffer dogs.  The rats were eradicated by spreading specially-formulated rodenticide from a helicopter in a hi-tech procedure using GPS equipment and a specifically designed spreader bucket which could calibrate required bait-drops".  If no signs are detected after two years Monuriki and Kadomo Islands will be officially declared rat and goat-free.

 Monuriki was the location for the 2000 Robert Zeemckis film *Cast Away* starring Tom Hanks - which depicted his attempt to survive alone on the island following an aeroplane crash.

 [Click here](http://www.birdlife.org/community/2011/12/invasive-species-cast-away-in-fiji/) for more details of the Fijian eradication exercise.

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Wedge_tailed/wedge-tailed shearwater_alan_burger.jpg)  
Wedge-tailed Shearwater.  Photograph by Alan Burger

 Meanwhile across the Equator in the North Pacific, the construction of a predator-proof fence and the successful removal of a suite of alien predators from within the fenced area at Ka'ena Point on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu ([click here](https://acap.aq/latest-news/helping-the-laysan-albatross-predator-removal-continues-inside-hawaiis-first-pest-proof-fence)) has led to an increase in the numbers of fledging Wedge-tailed Shearwaters ('ua'u kani) to a high this year of 1775.  The previous highest fledgling count was of 1556 in 2007, with surveys first commencing in 1994.  In previous years large numbers (up to 15%) of the shearwater chicks have been killed by stray dogs, feral cats, Indian Mongooses *Herpestes javanicus* and Black or Ship Rats*Rattus rattus*, now all eradicated from the reserve, according to a [press release](http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/chair/pio/nr/2011/NR10-317.pdf) by the [Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources](http://hawaii.gov/dlnr).

 With thanks to Lindsay Young, ACAP North Pacific News Correspondent for information.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 9 December 2011*