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New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstractsZ00016 Received and accepted 17 July 2000
Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus) breeding colonies on mainland South Island, New Zealand: evidence of decline and predictors of persistenceCHRIS JONES
Department of Zoology
Abstract A survey of 170 km of the mainland Otago
coastline was carried out in the 1997/98 breeding season in order to determine
the current status of breeding colonies of sooty shearwater (Puffinus
griseus). The locations of breeding colonies, as defined by the presence of
burrows, are described and compared with historical records. Numbers of
colonies were found to have declined by at least 54% in the past 50 years. Site
characteristics which may predict colony survival were: (1) control of
introduced predators and (2) the presence of softer soils. Persistence of
burrows was independent of dominant vegetation type. Sooty shearwaters seem to
be able to withstand habitat modification, but most of the small colonies
recorded in this survey are unlikely to survive without predator control. |