• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Mascarene Petrel (1 Viewer)

Richard Klim

-------------------------
Shirihai, Pym, San Román & Bretagnolle 2014. The Critically Endangered Mascarene Petrel Pseudobulweria aterrima: identification and behaviour at sea, historical discovery of breeding sites, and breeding ecology on Réunion, Indian Ocean. Bull BOC 134(3): 194–223. [pdf]

BirdLife, 4 Sep 2014: Critically endangered Mascarene Petrel discovered at sea and unique image captured of bird with its egg.

BirdLife: Species factsheet.

GrrlScientist, The Guardian, 4 Sep 2014: Pregnant Mascarene petrel shows off ginormous egg bump as she soars over open seas: picture.
 
Richard

thanks for posting the links - good news (unlike the cost of hiring boats on Reunion I suspect!)

cheers, alan
 
Thanks for the links Richard. It's a depressing story for the unfortunate species which are affected by light-induced mortality :-C

I mean whatever about the possibility of controlling predators on the islands where those birds breed, what chance is there of having a long-term solution for light pollution ?
 
I hope similar technology will be used for European Freira or Madeiran Petrel. It has one little known colony but much of Madeira was never surveyed. There are rumours that there may be more.

It would be especially interesting to put radio transmitters on pre-breeding adult birds, in hope that petrels visit other, undiscovered breeding places of their species, especially before breeding.
 
Richard

thanks for posting the links - good news (unlike the cost of hiring boats on Reunion I suspect!)

cheers, alan

I visited Reunion 9 years ago, and although it was primarily a non-birding holiday I'd have been well up for a pelagic trip - there were no birder-oriented boat trips on offer then, just coastal whale-watching. Only seabirds I saw were brown noddies and white-tailed tropicbird (the latter at an inland breeding site). A business opportunity for someone, as I'm sure the cost of a private hire of a fishing boat is likely to be prohibitive!

Thanks for the links Richard. It's a depressing story for the unfortunate species which are affected by light-induced mortality :-C

I mean whatever about the possibility of controlling predators on the islands where those birds breed, what chance is there of having a long-term solution for light pollution ?

I understood that one of the issues with controlling feral cats on Reunion is that killing cats is illegal under French law? - I'm sure I read this somewhere in the context of Barau's petrel conservation.

As far as light pollution and birds is concerned, there is a technical solution: http://www.waddenzee.nl/fileadmin/content/Dossiers/Energie/pdf/green_light_to_birdsNAM.pdf
The problem with Reunion is it is a developed economy with lots of urban lighting, and a high population density, including in the SW of the island where the Shirihai paper noted most groundings occurred.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top