<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/11/number-of-nesting-seabirds-on-island-of-lundy-at-nine-decade-high>
"There are more seabirds nesting on the island of Lundy than at any time since
the 1930s, conservationists have revealed.
The tiny island in the Bristol Channel, a globally famed location for Britain’s
seabirds, is now home to 25,000 Manx shearwaters – 95% of England’s breeding
population – as well as 1,335 puffins and more than 150 pairs of storm petrels,
a species that only arrived on the island in 2014.
Despite the recent threat of avian flu, which has decimated wild bird
populations in some of the world’s most sensitive locations, and the
problematic decline in wild sources of food such as sand eels, the total number
of seabirds on Lundy stood at 40,000 this summer.
This is a massive turnaround after just 7,351 remained in 2000. Puffins were
close to extinction, with just 13 counted on the windswept 450-hectare island
in 2001.
But a drive to remove rats from the island has helped numbers to rebound. Black
and brown rats, which arrived on Lundy as stowaways on ships over many decades,
had been preying on the eggs and chicks, particularly those of burrow-nesting
shearwaters and puffins.
The rats were eradicated in a partnership led by the RSPB, Natural England, the
Landmark Trust and the National Trust between 2002 and 2004 – a move that was
opposed at the time by some animal rights groups, who argued that
conservationists were favouring tourist-friendly birds over the rats.
Since the island was declared rat-free in 2006, its seabird populations have
bounced back, as they have on other small islands when invasive predators let
loose by humans have been removed.
Paul St Pierre, a conservation officer for the RSPB, said: “Partnership
projects like this show just how much potential there is to restore species and
landscapes on an incredible scale.
“If we can restore over 30,000 birds to one small island in the Bristol
Channel, just imagine how much could be achieved if everyone came together to
restore nature right across the UK.”"
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-democracy-europe-trans-japan-conservation-israel/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
