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title: "Newell’s Shearwaters and Hawaiian Petrels get hit by rats on a Hawaiian island"
---

# Newell’s Shearwaters and Hawaiian Petrels get hit by rats on a Hawaiian island

The [Endangered](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3939) Newell’s Shearwater *Puffinus newelli* and [Vulnerable](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3896) Hawaiian Petrel *Pterodroma sandwichensis* are both endemic to the USA’s Hawaiian Islands.  Kauai is home to 90% of the World’s population of the shearwater, as well as holding important populations of the petrel.

 On Kauai both species are under threat from introduced rats *Rattus* spp..  The [Kauai Endangered Seabird Recovery Project](https://www.facebook.com/kauaiseabirdproject) has filmed rats entering burrows: “KESRP is using infrared cameras to monitor the secret lives of endangered Newell’s Shearwater and Hawaiian Petrels in remote locations of Hono o Na Pali Natural Area Reserve and Upper Limahuli Preserve.  Last year, at one specific Na Pali Coast site, rats alone killed 20 percent of nesting chicks” ([click here](http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/oh-rats/article_c5bff618-154d-11e4-9613-001a4bcf887a.html)).

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Shearwaters/Shearwaters/Newells_Shearwater_release_Kauai_Oct_ 2009_EricVanderWerf s.jpg)

 Newell's Shearwater, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

 Kauai’s burrowing seabirds are also affected by feral Domestic Cats *Felis catus*.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 August 2014*