The Fiji petrel (Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi) is a small, all black-brown petrel with a short neck and stout black bill giving it a chunky, thickset appearance.
Also known as: Fiji Petrel
Local Names: Kacau ni Gau
Description
The Fiji petrel is a small, all black-brown petrel with a short neck and stout black bill giving it a chunky, thickset appearance. It measures up to 28cm from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail. In flight, the underwing has a pale silvery sheen. It has a pale washed-out blue tarsi; mostly black feet with a pale blue patch on centre of each web.Distribution
This sea bird is only known to nest on the island of Gau and so is considered endemic to that island. However, it forages at sea well away from the island, quite possibly several hundred kilometers away or more, but at present the feeding areas are unknown.
Habitat Ecology and Behaviour
The Fiji Petrel is a sea bird, and is presumed to nest in burrows on high forested ridges in the interior of the island and disperse to pelagic waters far from the island. There is no ecological information available on this bird despite numerous efforts to search for its nests and live individuals.
Threats
The main threats to the survival of this species are believed to be feral cats and rats predating on nesting birds. Even though there is no mongoose on Gau Island, the danger of the mongoose arriving on Gau still remains a possibility and therefore a threat to the Fiji Petrel. Unlike many islands of similar size there are no feral pigs on Gau, and this is fortunate because feral pigs are a major predator of nesting petrels. Another threat to the survival of the Fiji Petrel is the mishandling of grounded birds by humans; which despite the good intentions of the individual may further harm the bird than save it, especially if the handler does not know how to look after a grounded Fiji Petrel.
Conservation Status
The Fiji Petrel is listed as a Critically Endangered species in the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species. For over a century it was known from a single fledgling collected from Gau in October 1855 by T. M. Rayner, a Medical Officer on the Royal Navy survey ship, HMS Herald. It was presumed to be extinct until an adult was caught near the summit of Gau and subsequently released in April 1984. Since 1985, there have been 17 reports of the Fiji Petrels which have landed on the roofs of village houses on Gau. Two community awareness programs were conducted on the island in 1987 and 2002. In 2003 a Fiji Petrel recovery plan was drawn up with the assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Department of New South Wales; in 2004, the National Trust for Fiji initiated a year long awareness program on Gau Island with the U.S. based conservation non governmental organisation, RARE.
Birdlife Fiji, the National Trust for Fiji and the Wildlife Conservation Society teamed up in 2004 to run a community based project that was intended to attract the Fiji Petrels to an accessible location and thereby allow the researchers to get data. The encounters with these birds are so rare that data has only been collected from one bird. In 2007, a Fiji Petrel crash landed in Levukaigau village on Gau; the bird was too weak to be liberated and died not long afterwards. The bird was taken to Fiji Petrel researcher Dr. Dick Watling who then made arrangements to have the bird preserved for study and reference here in Fiji.
The only other preserved specimen of the Fiji Petrel in the world is in the British Museum in the United Kingdom and was collected in 1855. The fatal landing of the bird in 2007 prompted NatureFiji-MareqetiViti to secure funding to continue the implementation of the Fiji Petrel recovery plan with the communities on Gau Island. Included in this project is teaching of proper techniques on how to handle and look after injured and grounded birds.
Remarks and Cultural Significance
The Fiji Petrel is listed as a Critically Endangered species in the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species. For over a century it was known from a single fledgling collected from Gau in October 1855 by T. M. Rayner, a Medical Officer on the Royal Navy survey ship, HMS Herald. It was presumed to be extinct until an adult was caught near the summit of Gau and subsequently released in April 1984. Since 1985, there have been 17 reports of the Fiji Petrels which have landed on the roofs of village houses on Gau.
Two community awareness programs were conducted on the island in 1987 and 2002. In 2003 a Fiji Petrel recovery plan was drawn up with the assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Department of New South Wales; in 2004, the National Trust for Fiji initiated a year long awareness program on Gau Island with the U.S. based conservation non governmental organisation, RARE.
Birdlife Fiji, the National Trust for Fiji and the Wildlife Conservation Society teamed up in 2004 to run a community based project that was intended to attract the Fiji Petrels to an accessible location and thereby allow the researchers to get data. The encounters with these birds are so rare that data has only been collected from one bird. In 2007, a Fiji Petrel crash landed in Levukaigau village on Gau; the bird was too weak to be liberated and died not long afterwards.
The bird was taken to Fiji Petrel researcher Dr. Dick Watling who then made arrangements to have the bird preserved for study and reference here in Fiji. The only other preserved specimen of the Fiji Petrel in the world is in the British Museum in the United Kingdom and was collected in 1855. The fatal landing of the bird in 2007 prompted NatureFiji-MareqetiViti to secure funding to continue the implementation of the Fiji Petrel recovery plan with the communities on Gau Island. Included in this project is teaching of proper techniques on how to handle and look after injured and grounded birds.
References
Watling (1986; 2004);
Watling & Lewanavanua (1985);
Priddel et al. (2003);
Priddel et al. (in prep);
Front Page Photo: Dick Watling