New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Z00016
Received and accepted 17 July 2000

Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus) breeding colonies on mainland South Island, New Zealand: evidence of decline and predictors of persistence

CHRIS JONES

Department of Zoology
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
email: chrisj.jones@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

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.

Keywords  sooty shearwater; Puffinus griseus; colony site; distribution; decline; New Zealand; habitat; predation

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2000, Vol. 27: 335-345

0301-4223/00/2704-0335 $7.00/0   (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2000

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (542K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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