New Diving-Petrel Species Lives on One Island and Is Already Critically Endangered
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A Whenua Hou Diving-petrel, the newly described species that nests in sand dunes on a small New Zealand island. Photo: Jake Osborne
A single colony of 150 birds somehow survived introduced rats, the scourge of New Zealand's birds. Now the race is on to save them from sea level rise.
By Hannah Waters
July 20, 2018
Codfish Island, off the southern coast of New Zealand, might be small, but it’s of tremendous importance to the country’s birds. The five-square-mile isle, known as Whenua Hou to the Māori people, is probably best known as the epicenter of Kakapo conservation. The largest population of the imperiled flightless parrots survives in the island’s forest alongside Mottled Petrels (some 350,000 pairs, more than anywhere in the world), Cook’s Petrels, and Sooty Shearwaters during the seabirds’ breeding season.
Less known is a population of diving-petrels that nest in the sand dunes along the coast. The birds used to be considered South Georgia Diving-Petrels, a species numbering in the millions that breeds on islands in or near the Southern Ocean. But for decades, New Zealand scientists and conservationists suspected this colony was different. New research, published last month in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, confirms their suspicion: The diving-petrels on Codfish Island belong to a new species, now called the Whenua Hou Diving-Petrel (Pelecanoides whenuahouensis). And with a population of around 150 birds, all living on this single island, the species is already critically endangered.
Graeme Taylor, a seabird scientist, has been with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation since it was formed in 1987. For decades, he’s thought that the Codfish Island colony could be a different species. He hadn’t heard of South Georgia Diving-Petrels nesting in sand dunes before, for one. Then, he noted that these birds had forked tails—an “odd” finding considering that no South Georgia Diving-Petrels in museums had the same. Some preliminary genetic data also suggested they were unique, but it wasn’t entirely conclusive.
Finally, a few years ago, a graduate student showed up with the interest and time to work with the birds. After Johannes Fischer’s first research project, on Bornean Peacock-pheasants, fell through, he rolled with the punches. “I realized: I’m in the seabird capital of the world in New Zealand,” he recalls. He contacted the Department of Conservation to see if they had any ideas for projects, and they pointed him to the small colony on Codfish Island.
More:
https://www.audubon.org/news/new-diving-petrel-species-lives-one-island-and-already-critically-endangered
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A Kakapo named Sirocco on Codfish Island in southern New Zealand. Photo: Mark Carwardine/NPL/Minden
Birds in the News
The Critically Endangered Kakapo Parrot Is Having One Fantastic Year
A record breeding season and a spike in donations have conservationists hopeful for the flightless New Zealand bird.
https://www.audubon.org/news/the-critically-endangered-kakapo-parrot-having-one-fantastic-year
Hooray for Kakapo parrots:
More images:
https://tinyurl.com/y75hgafd
