Claire Runge (Landscape Ecology Group, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia) and colleagues have had an open-access paper accepted for the journal Conservation Letters that discusses how domestic legislation in federal government systems and international agreements need to be co-ordinated to improve the conservation of migratory species, including those listed by the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Migratory movements of animals frequently span political borders and the need for international collaboration in the conservation of migratory species is well recognized. There is, however, less appreciation of the need for coordinated protection within nations.  We explore consequences of multi-level governance for top-down implementation of international agreements, drawing on examples from Australia and with reference to the US and EU.  Coherent implementation of legislation and policy for migratory species can be challenging in federal jurisdictions where environmental law making can be split across multiple levels of governance and local and federal priorities may not necessarily be aligned.  As a result of these challenges, for example, two-thirds of Australian migratory birds remain unprotected under national legislation.  In Australia and elsewhere, coordinated protection of migratory species can be implemented within the current framework of conservation law and policy by actions such as designating national migration areas, negotiating nationally-coordinated agreements or listings of migratory species and pursuing new bilateral agreements with key countries along migratory routes.”

Shy Albatrosses, an Australian migratory species; photograph by Aleks Terauds

With thanks to Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao.

Reference:

Runge, C.A., Gallo-Cajiao, E., Carey, M.J., Garnett, S.T., Fuller, R.A. & McCormack, P.C. 2017.  Coordinating domestic legislation and international agreements to conserve migratory species: a case study from Australia. Conservation Letters.  doi:10.1111/conl.12345.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 February 2017

Peter Shaughnessy (South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia) has published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on evidence suggesting Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus are able to lay a two-egg clutch.

The paper's abstract follows:

“Females of the order Procellariiformes most often produce single-egg clutches. At Macquarie Island (54°S, 159°E) in 1959 during a field study of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus, four or five nests (0.14–0.18% of all nests) contained two eggs or two chicks (Warham 1962). This species occurs in two plumage forms, a dark phase and a white phase. Inheritance of these forms is controlled by a single autosomal gene with two alleles, with white phase dominant to dark phase. At Macquarie Island in 1959, one nest contained two white phase chicks brooded by a white-phase adult, which Warham (1962) believed resulted from a two-egg clutch rather than from polygyny. Analyses using probabilities based on the inheritance pattern of plumage phases in Southern Giant Petrels and the frequency of white-phase birds at Macquarie Island in 1959 indicate that it was almost seven times more likely that the two white-phase chicks in the nest brooded by a white-phase adult resulted from a clutch of two eggs rather than from polygyny.”

White-phase Southern Giant Petrel, photograph by Markus Ritz 

Reference:

Shaughnessy, P.D. 2017. A two-egg clutch or polygyny?  Two white-phase chicks in the nest of a Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus at Macquarie Island.  Marine Ornithology 45: 43-46.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 February 2017

Airam Rodríguez (Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Seville, Spain) and colleagues have reviewed seabird mortality caused by artificial lighting in the journal Conservation Biology.  They note that 56 species of petrels and shearwaters are affected.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Artificial lights at night cause high mortality of seabirds, one of the most endangered groups of birds globally. Fledglings of burrow-nesting seabirds, and to a lesser extent adults, are grounded by lights when they fly at night. We review the current state of knowledge of light attraction, identify information gaps and propose measures to address the problem. Although other avian families such as Alcidae and Anatidae can be involved, the most affected seabirds are petrels and shearwaters: at least 56 species, more than one-third of them (24) threatened, are grounded by lights. Grounded seabirds have been found worldwide, mainly on oceanic islands but also at some continental locations. Petrel breeding grounds confined to formerly uninhabited islands are particularly at risk from ever-growing levels of light pollution due to tourism and urban sprawl. Where it is impractical to ban external lights, rescue programs of grounded birds offer the most immediate and extended mitigation measures to reduce light-induced mortality, saving thousands of birds every year. These programs also provide useful information for seabird management. However, the data typically are fragmentary and often strongly biased so the phenomenon is poorly understood, leading to inaccurate impact estimates. We identified as the most urgent priority actions: 1) estimation of mortality and impact on populations; 2) assessment of threshold light levels and safe distances from light sources; 3) documenting the fate of rescued birds; 4) improvement of rescue campaigns, particularly in terms of increasing recovery rates and level of care; and 5) research on seabird-friendly lights to reduce attraction. More research is necessary to improve our understanding of this human-wildlife conflict and to design effective management and mitigation measures.”

Scopoli's Shearwaters downed by artificial lighting, photographs by Beneharo Rodriguez

Reference:

Rodríguez, A., Holmes, N.D., Ryan, P.G., Wilson, K.-J., Faulquier, L., Murillo, Y., Raine, A.F., Penniman, J., Neves, V., Rodríguez, B., Negro, J.N., Chiaradia, A., Dann, P., Anderson, T., Metzger, B., Shirai, M., Deppe, L., Wheeler, J., Hodum, P., Gouveia, C., Carmo, V., Carreira, G.P., Delgado-Alburqueque, L., Guerra-Correa, C., Couzi, F.-X., Travers, M. & Le Corre, M. 2017.  A global review of seabird mortality caused by land-based artificial lights.  Conservation Biology  DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12900.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 February 2016

For the last three austral summers the Chatham Islands Taiko Trust has been visiting The Pyramid, sole breeding site of New Zealand’s endemic Chatham Albatross Thalassarche eremita and transferring downy chicks to Point Gap on the Chatham Islands for hand-rearing until fledging.  The project aims to create a second colony for the Vulnerable species and so far has translocated 160 chicks of which all but six have fledged successfully (click here).  One colour-banded fledgling was spotted and photographed in South American waters off Chile in December last year (click here).

The Pyramid from the air, photograph by Paul Scofield

After the usual long wait for favourable weather the fourth year of the project has now got underway.  The trust reports: “It was starting to look like we were never going to get there, but we finally made it to the Pyramid on Sunday [5 February]!  It was an amazing day, despite a big swell off Point Gap, it was calm at The Pyramid, the birds are obviously having a good breeding season & we had 60 birds back & settled on their pots by 3 pm!”

The Pyramid on the day of collection, photograph courtesy of the Chatham Islands Taiko Trust

The 2017 cohort on their plastic pots at Point Gap with adult decoys scattered about, photograph from the Chatham Islands Taiko Trust

It is intended to continue translocations for a further year, making five in all.

Reference:

Bell, M. 2015.  Establishing a new colony of Chatham Island Albatross in the Chatham Islands, New Zealand.  Sea Swallow 64: 4-8.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 February 2017