Holly Jones (Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, USA) and a suite of colleagues have reviewed the conservation benefits from invasive mammal eradications on islands in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“More than US$21 billion is spent annually on biodiversity conservation.  Despite their importance for preventing or slowing extinctions and preserving biodiversity, conservation interventions are rarely assessed systematically for their global impact.  Islands house a disproportionately higher amount of biodiversity compared with mainlands, much of which is highly threatened with extinction.  Indeed, island species make up nearly two-thirds of recent extinctions.  Islands therefore are critical targets of conservation.  We used an extensive literature and database review paired with expert interviews to estimate the global benefits of an increasingly used conservation action to stem biodiversity loss: eradication of invasive mammals on islands.  We found 236 native terrestrial insular faunal species (596 populations) that benefitted through positive demographic and/or distributional responses from 251 eradications of invasive mammals on 181 islands.  Seven native species (eight populations) were negatively impacted by invasive mammal eradication.  Four threatened species had their International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List extinction-risk categories reduced as a direct result of invasive mammal eradication, and no species moved to a higher extinction-risk category.  We predict that 107 highly threatened birds, mammals, and reptiles on the IUCN Red List—6% of all these highly threatened species—likely have benefitted from invasive mammal eradications on islands. Because monitoring of eradication outcomes is sporadic and limited, the impacts of global eradications are likely greater than we report here.  Our results highlight the importance of invasive mammal eradication on islands for protecting the world's most imperiled fauna.”

Gough Island's Tristan Albatrosses will benefit by the planned eradication of invasive House Mice

Photograph by Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless

Reference:

Jones, H.P. et al. 2016.  Invasive mammal eradication on islands results in substantial conservation gains.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1521179113.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 April 2016

The project will utilize existing long-term datasets and collect new field data to track changes in the presence, distribution and abundance of burrow-nesting seabirds and to assess how this seabird community has responded to the eradication of feral vertebrates and their role in the broader ecosystem recovery after decades of feral animal impacts.

The research is part of a larger project aimed at the development of an optimal long-term monitoring strategy for key threatened species on the island and the island ecosystem as a whole.  The student will investigate the conservation return on investment of the eradication and inform decision-making strategies around threatened species monitoring and conservation.

Grey Petrel, photograph by Peter Ryan

The student will be part of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, National Environmental Science Programme and will work in conjunction with Dr Justine Shaw and Professor Hugh Possingham (Centre of Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland) and Dr Rachael Alderman (Department of Primary Industry, Parks Water & Environment, Tasmania).

For details go to the link.

Applications should include a motivation letter and a short CV and sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Applications close on 18 April 2016.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 April 2016

The deadlines for both Abstract Submissions and Early Bird Registrations for the 6th International Albatross and Petrel Conference (IAPC6) have been extended to 10 April 2016 due to numerous requests from potential participants.

IAPC6 will be held in Barcelona Catalonia, Spain, from 19-23 September 2016.  The venue for the conference will be the historic Paranimf (Paranymph) of the University of Barcelona in the City Centre.

We invite you to submit your abstract and to register at http://iapc6.info where you can also find all information relative to the conference programme, keynote speakers and all linked events.

Read more here.

Jacob González-Solís, Raül Ramos, Gaia Dell’Ariccia, Virgínia Morera, Marta Cruz, Joan Ferrer & Laura Zango, IAPC6 Organizing Committee, 01 April 2016

Bruce Young (NatureServe, Arlington, USA) and James Zook have published in the journal Revista de Biología Tropical on seabirds seen in Costa Rican waters, including the ACAP-listed Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni and Pink-footed Shearwater Puffinus creatopus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Although the Eastern Tropical Pacific is well known for its diverse fauna, the seabirds occurring off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast have received little scientific attention.  With seabirds now the fastest declining avian group, a better understanding of seabird diversity and abundance in this region is urgently needed.  We report on observations of Costa Rica’s Pacific seabirds made during 19 days of observations on 11 offshore trips from 2006-2010.  We provide, for the first time, spatially and seasonally explicit information on the distribution of 41 species of seabirds (nine families).  Species diversity is higher during the dry-wet season (36 species) and wet-dry season transitions (36 species) than during the dry season (19 species). The fauna included three threatened species (Pterodroma phaeopygia, Procellaria parkinsoni, andPuffinus creatopus) and two near-threatened species (Psueudobulweria rostrata and Thalasseus elegans), highlighting the importance of Costa Rican waters for the conservation of seabirds.”

Black Petrel at sea, photograph by Biz Bell

Click here for a record of an ACAP-listed Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata in Costa Rican waters.

Reference:

2016.  Observation frequency and seasonality of marine birds off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  Revista de Biología Tropical 64 (Suppl. 1): S235-S248.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 March 2016