Burrowscope reveals our first Collared Petrel chick NFMV recently acquired a Burrowscope to look deep into petrel nesting burrows without damaging them.
14/07/2010 - Dick Watling
Somewhere
in the rugged forested hills of Gau, an estimated 20-40 pairs of Fiji Petrel
arrive from the southern ocean to nest each year. Like the Collared Petrel
which also nests on Gau, it is believed that they nest in burrows 1-3m in
length which they dig themselves and the same pairs then use again each year.
In 2009, an NFMV organised team was able to photograph the Fiji Petrel at sea
for the first time ever, since then the efforts of the Fiji Petrel Project have
focused back on land, because finding and then protecting the nesting burrows
of the Fiji Petrel is the only activity which well demonstrably assist in its
conservation. Currently, the Fiji Petrel Project Officer Eleazear O’Conner with
Gau Island Warden Amania Taukei are leading field teams of selected assistants
from each village on the island to man the spotlighting stations during the new
moon, and search for nesting burrows in the forest in the intervening period.
The rugged upland forests of Gau - home to nesting Fiji and Collared Petrels. Photo: Eleazar O'Conner
NFMV’s
grant from the Mohamed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has enabled the
purchase of a ‘Burrowscope’ specifically made for the project by Dominque
Filippi of Sextant Technology, NZ. A burrowscope is a 2.5 metre flexible tube
with a camera and light at one end which transmits a picture by radio waves
back to a screen, held by an operator at the surface. The burrowscope will
enable the Fiji Petrel project team to know whether any burrow is occupied or
not without modifying it in any way, and if it is occupied, whether the
occupier is a Fiji Petrel, a Collared Petrel or maybe even a Tahiti Petrel. On
Gau, the situation is made more difficult by the large number of land crabs,
whose burrows can be mistaken for those of a petrel.
Burrowscope in use by Fiji Petrel Project Officer Eleazar O'Conner. (Photo: NFMV)
Our
first, and only success to date, has been the discovery of a Collared Petrel at
a burrow near Qarani in the north of the island. This burrow has now been
monitored every 7-10 days and the chick is due to fledge any day now. During
the nestling period, Eleazar has been working with two project assistants from
Qarani village to undertake conservation management activities around the
burrow, this includes placement of rat poison in bait stations and recording
the take, setting traps for feral cats and inspecting the general area for sign
of feral pigs. This training is being undertaken to develop a cadre of
experienced personnel for when the project finds a Fiji Petrel burrow.Currently the project is hosting NZ
volunteer, Jill West, who is a very experienced petrel/shearwater biologist and
she is working with the teams to maximize the chances of finding petrel burrows
and safely investigating them. The project hopes to have teams working from
nearly all the villages in their own forests next year.
Collared Petrel Chick in its nesting burrow taken with the Burrowscope. (Photo: Eleazar O'Conner)
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