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Michael Reed (Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA) and colleagues, writing last year in the journal Bioscience, consider how best to protect Hawaii's threatened avifauna, including the Endangered Newell's Shearwater Puffinus newelli (Endangered) and Vulnerable Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis. Both Hawaiian-endemic procellariiform species are listed under the US Endangered Species Act of 1973 and are in need of active conservation efforts: "[t]he threats to Hawaiian petrel or Newell's shearwater are habitat loss due to conversion and ungulates, predation by exotic predators, and light pollution, all of which can be managed on but not eliminated from the main Hawaiian Islands."

The paper's abstract follows:

"One-third of the bird species listed under the US Endangered Species Act are [sic] endemic to Hawaii.  One requirement of delisting a species is the elimination or abatement of threats to that species.  More than 95% of Hawaii's threatened and endangered species face multiple threats that cannot be eliminated (e.g., alien mammalian predators, invasive alien plants that alter habitat structure, disease).  However, because we can manage many of the threats at scales at which the achievement of recovery goals is possible, these species could be delisted if conservation partners committed to the implementation of stewardship agreements to maintain viable populations following those populations' delisting."

The paper concludes that "[a] first step toward achieving the recovery goals for these species [the shearwater and petrel] would be creating predator-free zones on breeding colonies using predator proof fences and translocating the species to predator-free areas at lower elevations with direct access to the sea, where the threats of light pollution are greatly reduced."

Reference:

Reed, J.M., DesRochers, D.W., VanderWerf, E.A. & Scott, J.M. 2012.  Long-term persistence of Hawaii's endangered avifauna through conservation-reliant management.  Bioscience 62: 882-892.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 January 2013