Tatsuya Shiozaki (Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan) and colleagues have published in Japanese in the Japanese Journal of Ornithology on a feral cat Felis catus entering the metre-long burrow of a Streaked Shearwater Calonectris leucomelas and removing the chick.  The article also describes egg predation by a Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos and chick predation by a Japanese Rat Snake Elaphe climacophora.

Feral cats prey upon shearwater chicks, photograph by Jerome Legrand

Click here to view the Infrared video camera film from August 2012 of the predation event. 

Reference:

Shiozaki, T., Shirai, M., Osugi, M., Yamamoto, M. & Yoda, M.. 2014.  Predation by feral cat on Streaked Shearwater chicks on Awashima.  Japanese Journal of Ornithology 63: 75-78 [in Japanese].

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 October 2015

William Walker (National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, Seattle, Washington, USA) and colleagues have published on-line and open-access in the journal Marine Ornithology on the stomach contents of by-caught Short-Tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus.

Prey identified included squid and fish.  The paper concludes: “The results of our Short-tailed Albatross study … leads us to conclude that the Short-tailed Albatross probably … employs surface scavenging as a primary foraging strategy in the eastern Bering Sea and California Current System.”

Short-tailed Albatrosses at sea, photograph by Rob Suryan

Reference:

Walker, W.A., Fitzgerald, S.M. & Collins, P.W. 2015.  Stomach contents of seven Short-Tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus in the eastern North Pacific and Bering Sea.  Marine Ornithology 43: 169-172.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 October 2015

Susan Waugh (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the New Zealand journal Notornis on cyclonic storm damage to colonies of ACAP-listed and Vulnerable Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica.

The publication concludes;

“Ex-tropical cyclone Ita impacted many Westland petrel colonies in April 2014.  Our preliminary survey assessed damage at colonies containing over 75% of the estimated breeding population of Westland petrels, and high levels of damage were noted at 4 of the 6 colonies assessed.  In some of these areas, a major part (over 50%) of the breeding habitat has been destroyed by landslips.  Further detailed surveys are required to quantitatively assess the impacts on the breeding population and nesting habitat.  Given the threatened status of this species, and its restricted distribution, this work is high priority.  The programme of demographic research on the Westland petrels at Rowe and Study colony continues, and assessment of the impacts of the storm on survival, breeding frequency and breeding output of individuals may be possible over coming years.”

Westland Petrel, photograph by Susan Waugh

Reference:

Waugh, S.M., Poupart, T. & Wilson, K.-J. 2015.  Storm damage to Westland petrel colonies in 2014 from cyclone Ita.  Notornis 62: 165-168.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 October 2015

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