Abstract
Small burrowing petrels nesting on islands rarely survive introductions of mammalian predators. On New Island, a population of around two million pairs of thin-billed prions nests despite the presence of introduced ship rats, house mice and feral cats. Understanding the mechanisms of such coexistence is important, as it is important to establish a baseline for future monitoring. To do this, prion breeding success was determined for 7 years and in several habitats. Breeding success was high, except for the small fraction of the population that nests in tussock Poa flabellata stands, where several lines of evidence suggest significant predation by rats. Such high breeding success possibly resulted from predator swamping in this highly seasonal environment. This study suggests that introduced mammals do not currently depress thin-billed prion breeding success on New Island. However, cats and rodents might have future harmful effects if external factors depressed the prion population or allow a significant population growth of predators on New Island.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Brooke M (2004) Albatrosses and petrels across the world. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Catry P, Campos A, Segurado P, Silva M, Strange I (2003) Population census and nesting habitat selection of thin-billed prion Pachyptila belcheri on New Island, Falkland Islands. Polar Biol 26:202–207
Cuthbert R (2002) The roles of introduced mammals and inverse density-dependent predation in the conservation of Hutton’s shearwater. Biol Conserv 108:69–78
Cuthbert R, Hilton G (2004) Introduced house mice Mus musculus: a significant predator of threatened and endemic birds on Gough Island, South Atlantic Ocean? Biol Conserv 117:483–489
Huin N (2003) Falkland Island seabird monitoring programme, annual report 2002–2003. Falklands Conservation, Stanley
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
Martin J-L, Thibault J-C, Bretagnolle V (2000) Black rats, island characteristics and colonial nesting birds in the Mediterranean: consequences of an ancient introduction. Conserv Biol 14:1452–1466
Moors PJ, Atkinson IAE (1984) Predation on seabirds by introduced animals, and factors affecting its severity. In: Croxall JP, Evans PGH, Schreiber RW (eds) Status and conservation of the world’s seabirds. International council for bird preservation, Technical Publication 2, Cambridge, pp 667–690
Nevoux M, Barbraud C (2005) Relationships between sea ice concentration, sea surface temperature and demographic traits of thin-billed prions. Polar Biol 29:445–453
Newton I (1998) Population limitation in birds. Academic, San Diego
Pye T, Swain R, Seppelt RD (1999) Distribution and habitat use of the feral black rat (Rattus rattus) on subantarctic Macquarie Island. J Zool 247:429–438
Quillfeldt P, Masello JF, Strange IJ (2003) Breeding biology of the thin-billed prion Pachyptila belcheri at New Island, Falkland Islands: egg desertion, breeding success and chick provisioning in the poor season 2002–2003. Polar Biol 26:746–752
Quillfeldt P, Strange IJ, Masello JF (2006) Sea surface temperatures and behavioural buffering capacity in thin-billed prions: breeding success, provisioning and chick begging. J Avian Biol
Strange IJ (1980) The thin-billed prion Pachyptila belcheri, at New Island, Falkland Islands. Gerfaut 70:411–445
Acknowledgments
To Maria Strange and to Shona Strange for support in the field and in Stanley. This study was financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT-Portugal) as part of the Programa Plurianual (UI&D 331/94) and by research grants Praxis XXI BPD/11631/02 to PC and BD/9356/96 to MCS. Further support was received from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office through an Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP) grant (FAL 201) and from grants provided by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG, Germany (Qu 148/1). All work was approved by the Falkland Islands Government (Environmental Planning Office).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Catry, P., Silva, M.C., MacKay, S. et al. Can thin-billed prions Pachyptila belcheri breed successfully on an island with introduced rats, mice and cats? The case of New Island, Falkland Islands. Polar Biol 30, 391–394 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0204-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-006-0204-8