Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula of New Zealand’s South Island is one of the very few places in the World where breeding albatrosses can be viewed by the general public without a sea voyage to an oceanic island.  The locality supports a small population of Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi.  News is in that a total of 108 birds has returned for the new breeding season with 32 nests established so far (click here).

A pair of Northern Royal Albatrosses display, photograph courtesy of the Royal Albatross Centre 

Northern Royal Albatross and chick at Taiaroa Head, photograph by Lyndon Perriman

In recent years about 30-35 pairs have attempted to breed annually at the locality.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 November 2015

The Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP) has received the Banksia Natural Capital Award this month for successfully ridding the island of its alien rodents and rabbits.  Macquarie Island State Nature Reserve managed by theTasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service supports seven species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.

The Banksia Sustainability Awards were established to identify leading initiatives that work towards a more sustainable Australia.  The Banksia judges considered MIPEP “has made a significant difference in the ecosystem, completely transforming a whole environment and is definitely a key example of a totally sustainable project.”

Keith Springer, MIPEP Manager receives the 2015 Banskia Award from Sasha Courville of the National Australia Bank

which sponsored the Natural Capital category

The award citation follows:

“Between 2007 and 2015 the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service undertook the world’s largest island eradication project to remove all rabbits, ship rats and mice from World Heritage-listed Macquarie Island.

Located in the Southern Ocean halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica and 1,500 km from Hobart, Macquarie Island presented numerous challenges in terms of logistics, weather and field operating conditions.  Rabbits and rodents had enormous impacts on the fragile environment of Macquarie Island, causing massive loss of vegetation, increased erosion on the steep coastal slopes, and predation on the eggs and chicks of burrowing seabirds.

Funding from the Tasmanian and Australian governments of $24.6M, and a donation of $100,000 from WWF-Australia and Peregrine Adventures, allowed implementation of the plan to eradicate the three invasive mammal species on Macquarie Island.

Intensive planning from 2007 to 2010 was required to obtain all regulatory approvals and complete the complex operational planning and procurement aspects required.  After an initial release of the Rabbit Calicivirus, four helicopters spread rodenticide bait in the winter of 2011 across the entire island.  This successfully eradicated mice and rats and removed the majority of surviving rabbits.  Hunting teams using specially trained dogs then covered the island intensively for the next two and a half years, searching for and removing the few rabbits that remained.  In all, hunting teams covered 92,000 km to ensure no rabbits or rodents survived.

Recovery of vegetation has been dramatic and seabird populations are now re-establishing on the island” (click here).

The Banksia Foundation, founded in 1989, is a national not-for-profit organisation which promotes environmental excellence and sustainability through its Awards programme and other associated initiatives.

Last month MIPEP received the Australian Institute of Project Management national achievement award in the Sustainable Projects category (click here).

With thanks to Keith Springer for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 November 2015

Graham Parker (Parker Conservation, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the journal Polar Biology on aspects of the biology of the House Mouse Mus musculus (now possibly eradicated) on South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)*.  At low densities, unlike at some other Southern Ocean islands (click here) the mice did not seem to affect deleteriously burrowing petrels, including the ACAP-listed and Vulnerable White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“South Georgia has been the southernmost location where populations of invasive house mice Mus musculus are found.  The distribution of mice was investigated at Cape Rosa and the Nuñez Peninsula, the two areas of South Georgia where the species is known to occur.  Live-trapping and kill-trapping took place during March 2012, at the end of the austral summer, with traps in four grids (3.2–4.0 ha in area) and on 34 trap lines distributed across a range of habitats from the shoreline to 250 m above sea level.  Mice were scarce, with just 68 captures in about 1750 trap nights.  Mouse densities in tussock habitat were estimated at 2.1–2.8 mice/ha, with higher densities of 5.3–6.4 mice/ha along the coastline. Mice were found in all habitats apart from higher-altitude fellfield, but were relatively less abundant in tussock habitat with large numbers of seals.  Mice were breeding at both sites with 58 % of mature females pregnant or lactating.  Litter size (7.1 ± 2.3 embryos) and adult body mass (21.4 ± 4.6 g) were typical of most other island mice populations.  Population densities of mice on South Georgia are two orders of magnitude lower than mouse densities measured at other sub-Antarctic islands.  The very low population density and its restricted distribution, with most captures close to the shore, and the presence of large numbers of burrowing petrels and South Georgia pipits Anthus antarcticus at both sites, suggest that mice have a relatively limited impact on South Georgia’s vertebrate biodiversity.”

Kalinka Rexer-Huber sets a mouse trap

Graham Parker holds up one of the few House Mice caught

White-chinned Petrels display, photograph by Ben Phalan

With thanks to Graham Parker for information and photographs.

Reference:

Parker, G.C., Black, A., Rexer-Huber, K., Sommer, E. & Cuthbert, R.J. 2015.  Low population density and biology of an island population of house mice Mus musculus on South Georgia.  Polar Biology  DOI 10.1007/s00300-015-1831-8.

*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.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 November 2015

With a traditional Maori blessing ACAP-listed and Vulnerable Black Petrels Procellaria parkinsoni have been welcomed back to their breeding site on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf from their wintering grounds off South America.  The island is one of only two where the species breeds, the other being nearby Little Barrier.

“In celebrating their return to breed on Great Barrier and Little Barrier Islands, this seabird is getting some extra help from a group who are working to make the Gulf a safer place for them.  The Black Petrel/tÄiko Working Group includes fishing, government and environmental interests and is working on practical ways to reduce the risk to these special birds from fishing.  The Group’s members include the three largest fishing companies in the Gulf, all who attended today’s blessing and are committed to looking after these birds.

This summer, recreational organisations, fishing clubs and charter companies are spreading the word on how to fish safely around seabirds and fisheries officers are handing out information and providing other practical advice.”

A Black Petrel on its breeding grounds, photograph by Dave Boyle

The Black Petrel Working Group is facilitated by the Southern Seabird Solutions Trust, a New Zealand conservation NGO.  A Black Petrel Action Group, formed in 2011, can be followed on Facebook, its latest report is of the loss of two adult birds to a feral cat.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 November 205