Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

White-chinned petrel population estimate, Disappointment Island (Auckland Islands)

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Polar Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The white-chinned petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis is one of the most frequently observed seabird species captured in fisheries bycatch, yet some populations remain virtually unstudied. The size of the breeding population on the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, New Zealand, is unknown. Disappointment Island is thought to be the main white-chinned petrel breeding site in the Auckland Islands, and maybe also in the New Zealand region, and has never had introduced mammalian predators. We estimated the white-chinned petrel breeding population size taking into account the detection probability of burrows via distance sampling and the burrow occupancy rate. Eighty line transects were distributed over the island, with a total line length of 1600 m. Burrows were patchily distributed and most abundant in dense megaherb communities. White-chinned petrel burrow density \( \hat{D } \) was 654 burrows/ha (95 % CI 528–809 burrows/ha), with burrow detection probability \( \hat{p} \) varying among vegetation communities from 0.28 ± 0.02 to 0.43 ± 0.02 (±SE). Mean burrow occupancy was 0.73 ± 0.03. We document an estimated total of 155,500 (125,600–192,500) breeding pairs of white-chinned petrels on Disappointment Island during mid incubation in early January 2015. The relatively high occupancy and density of burrows suggest that Disappointment Island is a key breeding site for white-chinned petrels.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • ACAP (2013) Report of the population and conservation status working group—PCSWG1. AC7 Doc12 Rev1, Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, Hobart

  • Barbraud C, Delord K, Marteau C, Weimerskirch H (2009) Estimates of population size of white-chinned petrels and grey petrels at Kerguelen Islands and sensitivity to fisheries. Anim Conserv 12:258–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell EA (2014) Identification of seabirds captured in New Zealand fisheries. 1 July 2012–30 June 2013, Department of Conservation, Wellington

  • Berrow SD, Croxall JP, Grant SD (2000) Status of white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis Linnaeus 1758, at Bird Island, South Georgia. Antarct Sci 12:399–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • BirdLife Datazone (2015) BirdLife International Datazone. http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species. Accessed 26 June 2015

  • BirdLife International (2012) Procellaria aequinoctialis. The IUCN Red List of threatened species, v. 2014.3. www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed 21 Feb 2015

  • BirdLife International (2013) Birds in some families, notably seabirds, have deteriorated in status faster than others. BirdLife state of the world’s birds. http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sowb/casestudy/122. Accessed 26 June 2015

  • BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Procellaria aequinoctialis. http://www.birdlife.org. Accessed 01 July 2014

  • Buckland ST, Anderson DR, Burnham KP, Laake JL, Borchers DL, Thomas L (2001) Introduction to distance sampling: estimating abundance of biological populations. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR, Laake JL (1980) Estimation of density from line transect sampling of biological populations. Wildl Monogr 72:3–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper J, Marais AVN, Bloomer JP, Bester MN (1995) A success story: breeding of burrowing petrels (Procellariidae) before and after the eradication of feral cats Felis catus at subantarctic Marion Island. Mar Ornithol 23:33–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Defos du Rau P, Bourgeois K, Thévenet M, Ruffino L, Dromzée S, Ouni R, Abiadh A, Estève R, Durand J, Anselme L, Faggio G, Mohamed Yahya J, Rguibi H, Renda M, Miladi B, Hamrouni H, Alilech S, Nefla A, Jaouadi W, Agrebi S, Renou S (2015) Reassessment of the size of the Scopoli’s Shearwater population at its main breeding site resulted in a tenfold increase: implications for the species conservation. J Ornithol 156:877–892

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ESRI (2015) ArcGIS desktop advanced: release 10.3. Environmental Systems Research Institute, Redlands

  • Fewster RM, Buckland ST, Burnham KP, Borchers DL, Jupp PE, Laake JL, Thomas L (2009) Estimating the encounter rate variance in distance sampling. Biometrics 65:225–236

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Francis RICC, Bell EA (2010) Fisheries risks to the population viability of black petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni). New Zealand aquatic environment and biodiversity report no. 51. Ministry of Fisheries, Wellington

  • GISD (2014) Global Invasive Species Database. http://www.issg.org/database. Accessed 1 July 2014

  • Jouventin P, Bried J, Micol T (2003) Insular bird populations can be saved from rats: a long-term experimental study of white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis on Ile de la Possession (Crozet archipelago). Polar Biol 26:371–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawton K, Robertson G, Kirkwood R, Valencia J, Schlatter R, Smith D (2006) An estimate of population sizes of burrowing seabirds at the Diego Ramirez archipelago, Chile, using distance sampling and burrow-scoping. Polar Biol 29:229–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewison RL, Crowder LB, Wallace BP, Moore JE, Cox T, Zydelis R, McDonald S, DiMatteo A, Dunn DC, Kot CY, Bjorkland R, Kelez S, Soykan C, Stewart KR, Sims M, Boustany A, Read AJ, Halpin P, Nichols WJ, Safina C (2014) Global patterns of marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle bycatch reveal taxa-specific and cumulative megafauna hotspots. Proc Natl Acad Sci 111:5271–5276

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Martin AR, Poncet S, Barbraud C, Foster E, Fretwell P, Rothery P (2009) The white-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) on South Georgia: population size, distribution and global significance. Polar Biol 32:655–661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker GC, Rexer-Huber K (2016) Guidelines for designing burrowing petrel surveys to improve population estimate precision. Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. http://www.acap.aq/en/resources/acap-conservation-guidelines. Accessed 20 July 2016

  • Rayner MJ, Hauber ME, Clout MN (2007) Breeding habitat of the Cook’s Petrel (Pterodroma cookii) on Little Barrier Island (Hauturu): implications for the conservation of a New Zealand endemic. Emu 107:59–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richard Y, Abraham ER (2013) Risk of commercial fisheries to New Zealand seabird populations. New Zealand aquatic environment and biodiversity report no. 109. Ministry for Primary Industries, Wellington

  • Robertson HA, Dowding JE, Elliott GP, Hitchmough RA, Miskelly CM, O’Donnell CFJ, Powlesland RG, Sagar PM, Scofield RP, Taylor GA (2013) Conservation status of New Zealand birds, 2012. New Zealand threat classification series 4. Department of Conservation, Wellington

  • Ryan PG, Ronconi RA (2011) Continued increase in numbers of spectacled petrels Procellaria conspicillata. Antarct Sci 23:332–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryan PG, Dilley BJ, Jones MGW (2012) The distribution and abundance of white-chinned petrels (Procellaria aequinoctialis) breeding at the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. Polar Biol 35:1851–1859

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sommer E, Boyle D, Baer J, Fraser MJ, Palmer D, Sagar PM (2010) Antipodes Island white-chinned petrel and grey petrel field work report, 2009–10. Final report to Ministry of Fisheries. NIWA, Wellington

  • Sommer E, Boyle D, Fraser M, Sagar PM (2011) Antipodes Island white-chinned petrel field work report, 2011. Final report to Ministry of Fisheries. NIWA, Wellington

  • Taylor RH (1968) Introduced mammals and islands: priorities for conservation and research. Proc N Z Ecol Soc 15:61–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor GA (1988) Report to the Department of Conservation on an expedition to the Auckland Islands National Reserve, February 1988. Department of Conservation, Auckland

  • Taylor GA (2000) Action plan for seabird conservation in New Zealand. Part A: threatened seabirds. Threatened species occasional publication no. 16, Department of Conservation, Wellington

  • Thomas L, Buckland ST, Rexstad EA, Laake JL, Strindberg S, Hedley SL, Bishop JRB, Marques TA, Burnham KP (2010) Distance software: design and analysis of distance sampling surveys for estimating population size. J Appl Ecol 47:5–14

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson S (1991) Adaptive cluster sampling: designs with primary and secondary units. Biometrics 47:1103–1115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • TIBD (2012) Threatened Island Biodiversity Database, v. 2012.1. http://tib.islandconservation.org. Accessed 1 Sept 2015

  • Waugh SM, Barbraud C, Adams L, Freeman AND, Wilson K-J, Wood G, Landers TJ, Baker GB (2015) Modeling the demography and population dynamics of a subtropical seabird, and the influence of environmental factors. Condor 117:147–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Henk Haazen and the crew of the Tiama for their efforts in getting the team onto and back off Disappointment Island. Graeme Taylor, Graeme Elliott and Kath Walker kindly provided information from prior visits, Barry Baker shared aerial photographs of the island, and Deb Wilson provided statistical advice. We are grateful to the Department of Conservation (DOC) Conservation Services Programme and Southern Islands teams for logistical support, and DOC Rakiura for maintaining daily communications schedules. David Middleton, Bruce Robertson, Richard Wells and Deb Wilson gave valuable feedback on an earlier version of this work, and three anonymous reviewers helped strengthen the work further.

Funding

Financial support was received from the Agreement for the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (Grant 2013-07), the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) Conservation Services Programme, and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. KRH was supported by a University of Otago doctoral scholarship and a New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women fellowship. Permission to visit Disappointment Island was granted by DOC (Entry Permit 40203-LND).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Kalinka Rexer-Huber

  2. Parker Conservation, 126 Maryhill Terrace, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Graham C. Parker

  3. National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 8602, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Paul M. Sagar

  4. National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, 301 Evans Bay Parade, Hataitai, Wellington, New Zealand

    David R. Thompson

Authors
  1. Kalinka Rexer-Huber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Graham C. Parker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paul M. Sagar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. David R. Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kalinka Rexer-Huber.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures were conducted under a DOC research permit (Wildlife Act authority 38414-FAU), in accordance with the University of Otago animal ethics standards (approval 60/14).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rexer-Huber, K., Parker, G.C., Sagar, P.M. et al. White-chinned petrel population estimate, Disappointment Island (Auckland Islands). Polar Biol 40, 1053–1061 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-2031-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-2031-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation