An Endangered Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma chick has been scalped by mice on Marion Island: it will not survive; photograph by Ben Dilley

The Mouse-Free Marion Project aims to eradicate seabird-killing House Mice Mus musculus on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island in the austral winter of 2024.

“Mice were accidentally introduced to Marion Island, most probably by sealers in the early 19th century, and have had a devastating impact on the ecology of the island.  A warmer and drier climate over the last 30 years has contributed to an increase in the densities of mice on the island each summer, causing a shortage of invertebrates, upon which the mice had been surviving in the winter months.  This shortage of food has driven mice to find alternative food sources.  As on other oceanic islands, the mice found many of the seabirds had no defence against their attacks and were literally “sitting ducks”.  The scale and frequency of attacks has been increasing since they were first observed in the early 2000s and have escalated dramatically in the last few years.  Without immediate action, Marion Island’s seabirds face local extinction.  Left unchecked, the mice are predicted to cause the local extinction of 18 of the 28 species of breeding seabirds currently found on the island, some within the next 30 years.  Helicopters brought by sea across the ‘Roaring Forties’ from South Africa will spread rodenticide bait from underslung bait buckets in overlapping swathes across the entire island – the only method that has so far proven successful in eradicating rodents from large islands. At 30 000 hectares, Marion will be substantially larger than all previous rodent eradication efforts undertaken on islands in a single operation (click here).

At the same time as planning for the eradication progresses with the appointment of Project and Operations Managers, concerted efforts are being made to raise the considerable amount of funds required for such a big operation.  A global approach is being taken, aided by the appointment of a USA-based Chief Philanthropy Officer to seek large donations.  In addition, a ‘crowd-funding’ Sponsor a Hectare campaign is requesting South African Rand 1000 (or USD 70) a hectare to raise 30 million Rand towards the overall cost of the planned eradication.

Flock to Marion birders gather on the MSC Orchestra’s pool deck to celebrate their sponsoring over 2200 hectares; photograph by Michael Mason/Mark Anderson

In the last month, the project has received a boost with two major donations totalling nearly four million Rand.  First came news that 600 birders travelling on BirdLife South Africa’s Flock to Marion 2022 voyage, along with associated events, had raised over three million Rand, including sponsoring 2207 hectares of Marion Island, bringing the total sponsored to date to over 5000 hectares (click here).

Secondly, a donation of USD 55 000 from the Germany-based non-profit Caring for Conservation Fund, along with a personal sponsorship by its founders (who had travelled on the ‘Flock” cruise) has brought in 900 000 Rand (click here).

To learn more about the project, visit its recently redesigned website which gives information on ‘ways to give’ from its home page.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 March 2022

 Wandering Albatross at sea near South Africa's Prince Edward Islands; photograph by Trevor Hardaker

Three Antarctic organisations have once more announced opportunities for early-career professionals.  The Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP), the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) work together to support talented early-career researchers, scientists, engineers, environmental managers, and other professionals.  The purpose is to strengthen international capacity and cooperation in fields such as climate, biodiversity, conservation, humanities and astrophysics research by providing annual funding opportunities.  In 2022, COMNAP and IAATO will each offer one Fellowship with funding of up to USD 15 000.  The Fellowships enable early-career persons to join a project team from another country, opening up new opportunities and often creating partnerships that last for many years and over many Antarctic field seasons. The deadline for the COMNAP and IAATO Fellowship applications is 30 June 2022.

Following the recent launch of the Polar Initiative the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation has funded an additional SCAR Fellowship and as a result SCAR will offer in total four to five Fellowships of up to USD 15 000 each for 2022.  The details for the SCAR scheme will be similar to previous years but with the opportunity for applicants to propose partly or entirely remote Fellowships to reflect the impact of Covid-19 related travel restrictions.  The deadline for the SCAR fellowship applications is 31 August 2022.

COMNAP

SCAR

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 March 2022

 
Cory’s Shearwater, photograph by Paulo Catry

Beneharo Rodríguez (Canary Islands’ Ornithology and Natural History Group, Buenavista del Norte, Canary Islands, Spain) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Biological Invasions on effects of Introduced predators (cats and rats) and nest competitors (such as feral pigeons Columbia livia and Cory’s Shearwaters Calonectris borealis) on Bulwer’s Petrels Bulweria bulwerii in the Canary Islands.

Co-author Airam Rodríguez writes to ACAP Latest News "The bulk of Bulwer's Petrel breeding pairs is currently restricted to geographically small secure breeding sites (mostly marine rocks) due to predation by introduced mammal predators, collisions with electricity transmission wires, road casualties, habitat destruction, and attraction to artificial night lights. We highlight an overlooked threat to these petrel sanctuaries: pigeon competition for nesting sites that can cause more than 7.3% of breeding failure. In addition, we have also compiled a non-exhaustive list of evidence of interactions between feral pigeons and other seabirds (15 species!) across the world."

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Petrels are particularly sensitive to predation by introduced species.  Many populations have reduced their breeding ranges, currently mainly occupying predator-free sites.  Breeding range reduction leads to interspecific competition for nesting sites, which can be detrimental to petrels.  Here, we evaluate how the presence of introduced mammals (cats Felis catus and rats Rattus spp.) and potential competitors for nest sites (Cory’s shearwaters Calonectris borealis and feral rock pigeons Columba livia) shape the distribution, breeding density, and breeding performance of Bulwer’s petrel Bulweria bulwerii on Tenerife, the largest and most densely human populated of the Canary Islands.  We estimated nest density, assessed the role of nest location and physical characteristics of nests on breeding success, and determined causes of breeding failure by introduced predators and competitors.  Nest density was higher in predator-free colonies on marine rocks.  Cat presence was the best predictor of nest density, but it was not correlated with either presence or abundance of competitors.  Breeding success varied between years and colonies but was not related to nest characteristics.  Pigeon competition for nests was the most frequent cause of breeding failure (7.3%), followed by rat predation (6.3%). We also compared petrel and pigeon nest cavities and found considerable overlap in the physical size of nest sites.  Our study provides insights into an overlooked impact of the invasive rock pigeon: nest competition with small seabirds.  We encourage more research on the effects of pigeons on nest density, as well as disease and pathogen transmission, and vegetation changes within seabird colonies.”

With thanks to Airam Rodríguez.

Reference:

Rodríguez, B., Rodríguez, A., Siverio, F., Martínez, J.M., Sacramento, E. & Acosta, Y. 2002.  Introduced predators and nest competitors shape distribution and breeding performance of seabirds: feral pigeons as a new threat.  Biological Invasions doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02746-1.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 March 2022

Combating climate change: a translocated Laysan Albatross chick is hand-reared by Pacific Rim Conservation in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, a site safe from sea-level rise; artwork by ABUN artist, Ilana Nimz

Since the beginning of the year ACAP has been collaborating with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) over January and February on its 39th Project (“World Albatross Day 2022 - Climate Change”) to produce artworks that will help increase awareness of the conservation plight facing the world’s albatrosses.  This the third such collaboration with ABUN.

ABUN #39 was due to have ended yesterday after two months, but it has been extended by Kitty Harvill, ABUN’s co-founder, to the end of March 2022.  This will allow contributing artists to submit more artworks depicting two of the three species of albatrosses that breed in the North Pacific: the Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and the Laysan P. immutabilis.  These two species have been chosen to feature this year’s theme of Climate Change for World Albatross Day on 19 June (click here).

At risk from storms: Black-footed Albatrosses breeding close to the shore, watercolour and gouache by Flávia Barreto; after a photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

In the first two months of the collaboration a total off 55 artworks has been received, 18 depicting Black-footed Albatrosses, and 37 Laysan Albatrosses.  ACAP looks forward to seeing what the ABUN artists will produce in the next four weeks.

With grateful thanks to Kitty Harvill, Co-founder of ABUN and to all the contributing artists for supporting the conservation of albatrosses with their art.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 March 2022