NEW EFFORT BRINGS BIRDS BACK TO THE BAJA PENINSULA
AUDUBON IS RESTORING LONG-ABANDONED SEABIRD NESTING SITES IN MEXICO.
BY DAISY YUHAS
Published: 02/01/2012
Although the sunny, spare isles of Baja California offer open shores and cold, fish-filled waters, they are nearly barren of the ashy storm-petrels,
Cassin’s auklets, brown pelicans, and 14 other species of seabirds that used to nest there. For more than a decade scientists with Mexico’s Grupo de
Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) have been removing invasive predators from the islands, hoping to improve bird habitat. So far, however, only
a few of the birds have returned. So now GECI is taking a new tack, borrowing from the groundbreaking work of Audubon’s Steve Kress, director of
seabird restoration and vice president for bird conservation, to bring back the birds.
“What precludes nesting is that there are no birds there,” says Kress. So to give the impression that the isles are populated by birds, the GECI is
employing decoys, mirrors, and recorded bird calls—Kress’s pioneering techniques, which have benefited 47 seabird species in 14 countries, starting
with Atlantic puffins in Maine in 1973. Kress and his collaborators at the GECI and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are adapting these tactics for
Baja. Reestablishing nesting sites could be particularly crucial to the elegant tern and Heermann’s gull, which have become dangerously concentrated
in one location. “The birds will sense, de aqui soy—‘I am from here,’ ” says Alfonso Aguirre-Muñoz, executive director of the GECI. “They used to
belong to this place, and now we are reestablishing them.”
Audubon and the Cornell Lab are contributing training and equipment to the five-year, $4 million program. Among GECI’s biologists are Mexico natives
Maria Félix Lizárraga and Marlenne Rodriguez-Malagón, former interns of Audubon’s Project Puffin, which has helped to boost Maine’s puffin population
from one small colony to more than 1,000 pairs on five islands in nearly four decades. Not only are the former interns applying their specific
knowledge to this project, they’re also teaching fishermen and their families about the importance of conservation.David K - 2-2-2012 at 07:43 PM
If the birds abandoned a place, why is man interfering with Nature??? Maybe they didn't like it there, or maybe the food supply sucks or maybe rats
were eating their eggs...??? Just wondering why...Iflyfish - 2-2-2012 at 08:12 PM
"For more than a decade scientists with Mexico’s Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) have been removing invasive predators from the
islands, hoping to improve bird habitat. So far, however, only a few of the birds have returned. So now GECI is taking a new tack, borrowing from the
groundbreaking work of Audubon’s Steve Kress, director of seabird restoration and vice president for bird conservation, to bring back the birds."
Eliminating the man made sources of the decline of the species does not automatically make the islands an iviting place for reproduction!
Just like the possible elimination of cartels, (fat chance), their elimination would not necessarily in and of itself bring back breeding pairs of
humans to the beaches, incentives would be required.
Iflyfish
man caused damage, man has obligation to fix it
mtgoat666 - 2-2-2012 at 11:40 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by David K
If the birds abandoned a place, why is man interfering with Nature??? Maybe they didn't like it there, or maybe the food supply sucks or maybe rats
were eating their eggs...??? Just wondering why...
most of the bird decline on islands was due to man introducing invasive species, ranging from mice to rats and cats, and many non-native plants.
