Sainte Anne is a 219-hectare island lying four kilometres off the coast of Mahé, Seychelles.  In the past few years Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Puffinus pacificus have re-colonised the island, thought from nearby Île Sèche.  Annual rat control around the breeding colony has seen it grow from only a few pairs to an estimated 20-25 pairs.

“It is the largest island of the Ste Anne Marine National Park and was originally discovered on Saint Anne’s Day in 1742.  It was subsequently the first of the Seychelles islands to be settled by the French before they took up residency on Mahé.  After stints as a whaling and war station, today the island is home to a popular 5-star resort”.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater in the Seychelles, photograph by Alan Burger

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 October 2015

Vitor Paiva (MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Coimbra, Portugal) and colleagues have published in the on-line, open-access journal PloS ONE on at-sea tracking and trophic analysis of Cape Verde Shearwaters Calonectris edwardsii.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Large Marine Ecosystems such as the Canary Current system off West Africa sustains high abundance of small pelagic prey, which attracts marine predators.  Seabirds are top predators often used as biodiversity surrogates and sentinel species of the marine ecosystem health, thus frequently informing marine conservation planning.  This study presents the first data on the spatial (GPS-loggers) and trophic (stable isotope analysis) ecology of a tropical seabird — the endangered Cape Verde shearwater Calonectris edwardsii – during both the incubation and the chick-rearing periods of two consecutive years.  This information was related with marine environmental predictors (species distribution models), existent areas of conservation concern for seabirds (i.e. marine Important Bird Areas; marine IBAs) and threats to the marine environment in the West African areas heavily used by the shearwaters.  There was an apparent inter-annual consistency on the spatial, foraging and trophic ecology of Cape Verde shearwater, but a strong alteration on the foraging strategies of adult breeders among breeding phases (i.e. from incubation to chick-rearing).  During incubation, birds mostly targeted a discrete region off West Africa, known by its enhanced productivity profile and thus also highly exploited by international industrial fishery fleets.  When chick-rearing, adults exploited the comparatively less productive tropical environment within the islands of Cape Verde, at relatively close distance from their breeding colony.  The species enlarged its trophic niche and increased the trophic level of their prey from incubation to chick-rearing, likely to provision their chicks with a more diversified and better quality diet.  There was a high overlap between the Cape Verde shearwaters foraging areas with those of European shearwater species that overwinter in this area and known areas of megafauna bycatch off West Africa, but very little overlap with existing Marine Important Bird Areas.  Further investigation on the potential nefarious effects of fisheries on seabird communities exploiting the Canary Current system off West Africa is needed.  Such negative effects could be alleviated or even dissipated if the ‘fisheries-conservation hotspots’ identified for the region, would be legislated as Marine Protected Areas.”

Cape Verde Shearwater on its egg, photograph by Jacob Gonzalez-Solis

Reference:

Paiva, V.H., Geraldes, P., Rodrigues, I., Melo, T., Melo, J. & Ramos, J.A. 2015.  The foraging ecology of the endangered Cape Verde shearwater, a sentinel species for marine conservation off West Africa.  PloS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139390.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 October 2015

BirdLife International has announced its 'Pacific Petrels in Peril' initiative to address the conservation problems facing the smaller procellariiform species that occur in the tropical Pacific.

 “Sprinkled across the tropical Pacific, the innumerable islands of Oceania are home to some of the most unusual bird communities on the planet.  The Pacific Ocean is the petrel capital of the world, but these traditional companions of travellers and fishermen are in trouble in the region.”

Priority will be given to find the breeding sites of the little-known Critically Endangered Fiji Petrel Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi, Critically Endangered Beck's Petrel P. becki and Vulnerable Heinroth's Shearwater Puffinus heinrothi.  Overall, 18 procellariiform species have been identified for attention, including a number of threatened gadfly petrels Pterodroma spp. and storm petrels.

“Most islands in Oceania have not had systematic surveys performed of breeding seabirds. While there are some threats at sea for petrels breeding in the region, the primary threats are on land.  Until we can eliminate predation pressure and the degradation of nesting and roosting sites, and establish them as secure areas, there will be no improvement in their conservation status.”

BirdLife intends to work with other organisations to “develop networks for improved communication, resource sharing, capacity building and further project development”.

Read more here.

Birdlife set up a Gadfly Petrel Conservation Group in 2008/09 with the aim of improving knowledge and conservation status of the 32 species of Pseudobulweria and Pterodroma petrels, but it has been seemingly inactive for some time.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 October 2015

Marie Hale (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the New Zealand journal Notornis on how similar genetically are the two remaining populations of Hutton’s Shearwaters Puffinus huttoni.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Hutton’s shearwater (Puffinus huttoni) currently breeds only in 2 colonies in the Seaward Kaikoura mountains, South Island, New Zealand.  Conservation measures now include re-locating young to establish a new low altitude colony.  To assess the genetic similarity of birds breeding in the 2 colonies as a basis for decisions on sourcing recruits to the present and potentially other new colonies, we genotyped 9 microsatellite loci, with 3-13 alleles, in 30 birds from the Kowhai River catchment colony and 29 from Shearwater Stream.  There was no significant population genetic differentiation between the 2 sampling locations.  Our results suggest that there would be little genetic risk to mixing birds from both relict colonies in newly established colonies.  Future analyses of the former distributions of Hutton’s shearwater, the fluttering shearwater (P. gavia), and the extinct Scarlett’s shearwater (P. spelaeus) will require an analysis of the levels of genetic similarity between birds from the relict colonies and those of former, widely separated colonies.”

Hutton's Shearwater

Reference:

Hale, M., Harrow, G., Bradfield, P., Cubrinovska, I. & Holdaway, R.N. 2015.  Genetic similarity of Hutton’s shearwaters (Puffinus huttoni) from two relict breeding populations.  Notornis 62: 130-134.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 October 2015