In November, 10 fuzzy Hawaiian Petrel babies were taken from their mountain burrows in the Hono O Na Pali Natural Area Reserve and transplanted into artificial nesting boxes within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. It was the first phase
In November, 10 fuzzy Hawaiian Petrel babies were taken from their mountain burrows in the Hono O Na Pali Natural Area Reserve and transplanted into artificial nesting boxes within the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.
It was the first phase in a plan to establish a protected breeding colony of the endangered Hawaiian Petrel.
The transplantation to the Nihoku Area, an eight-acre enclosure surrounded by a predator proof fence, is being hailed as a success by the U. S. Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Now, the plan is to try the same tactics with the endangered ‘A’o, or the Newell’s shearwater.
“Newell’s shearwaters are steadily blinking out at lower elevation sites where they are worn down by intensive predation by cats, rats and pigs, and they’re now confined to the most remote areas of the uplands of Kauai,” said George Wallace, American Bird Conservancy’s vice president of oceans and islands.
The Kauai National Wildlife Refuge Complex is requesting public input for its environmental assessment planned for release sometime this year.
Nine of the 10 relocated Petrel chicks fledged, have imprinted on the Nihoku Area, and are out to sea, according to Lindsay Young, biologist with the Pacific Rim Conservation.
“The last chick fledged in mid-December,” she said.
Wallace said the one bird that didn’t survive died of a bacterial infection that it had contracted before it was removed from its original burrow.
“When we collected it, it was underweight and we didn’t know it at the time, but it was already ill,” Wallace said. “It’s a sad story, but it was in a burrow with a dead adult, so it was probably only being fed by one parent.”
The other birds, Wallace said, gained weight and feathers as expected.
“We have lovely game camera videos of them exercising their wings in the night before fledging,” Wallace said.
It will take between three and five years for the nine Petrels to return to the Nihoku Area, and then it could be a couple of years before they settle down and breed, Wallace said.
“It’s a long, slow process,” he said.
Young said the plan is to move 20 more Hawaiian Petrel chicks from their mountain burrows to the Nihoku Area in 2016.
The strategy for the Newell’s shearwater birds is going to be almost exactly the same as it was for the Hawaiian Petrels.
He explained the birds imprint on their burrows when they emerge, and then fly out to sea, just as the Hawaiian Petrels do. Both species use the sights, smells and the celestial clues to navigate their way back to their birth site when they return to land.
The Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge is home to a few pairs of the Newell’s shearwater birds, but they’re not in protected areas.
“This is to establish a completely secure population,” Young said.
Social attraction is another tactic being considered to lure the seabirds to the predator-proof breeding area.
Wallace said the Newell’s shearwater birds travel over the wildlife refuge in order to get to their nesting areas, so the plan would be to use a speaker playing the seabirds’ calls in order to attract the Hawaiian Petrels and Newell’s shearwaters.
“We are creating the impression of a vibrant colony site, a place that sounds like a nesting area,” Wallace said. “We want them to come to the ground, see if there are nesting birds, and pair with other birds to nest.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be accepting comments until March 15. Email comments to FW1planningcomments@fws.gov, with “NESH Management Actions” in the subject line.
