Archives

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 and Kadomo in the Mamanuca island chain have been cleared of two species of introduced mammals.  The National Trust of Fiji Islands and BirdLife International's Fiji Programme 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 for more details of the Fijian eradication exercise.

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) 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 by the Hawaiian Department of Land and Natural Resources.

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

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 9 December 2011