Island Conservation Society
13.07.2009 - Seychelles magpie robin success on Aride
Being able to witness the increase in population of any species is special; knowing that one’s work has contributed to that success is a particular privilege.
When that species is considered one of the rarest in the world the event takes on an extra significance. In recent weeks on the island of Aride, the population of Seychelles magpie robins has increased by two. Both are a considerable contribution to the world’s population, yet each for a different reason.
Endemic to Seychelles, with a global population of approximately just 190 birds, the species is currently found on only five islands of the country’s islands. Less than twenty years ago their population totalled just 23 birds, all of them confined to Fregate Island. Historically present on at least six other islands in Seychelles, the species was decimated by general habitat loss and the introduction of alien species, namely rats, domestic cats and myna birds. It was at this nadir in 1990, when the species was classed as critically endangered, that a recovery programme was launched; an international partnership managed by Birdlife International and the RSPB supported by the Seychelles Government. Numbers increased slowly, but were sufficiently stable by the mid 1990s, to begin translocating groups of birds to other islands which had made up the birds’ historical range. Though successful on Cousin and Cousine, these attempts initially failed to establish a viable population on Aride. However, a further attempt in 2002 did manage to found a nascent population which is monitored on a twice-daily basis by staff and volunteers on the island.
In stark contrast to their monochrome appearance the birds – as with all of those which are part of the recovery programme – were ringed with a unique code of coloured rings; a single colour ring on their right legs denoting where the bird was born (in Aride’s case it is a yellow ring) and two further colour rings on their left, which individually identify the bird.
This aids in the daily monitoring scheme of the species as individual birds can be identified, behaviour and breeding patterns noted and family trees constructed. As part of the reintroduction programme, the birds receive supplementary food and access to water and nest boxes. The success of the programme is judged purely in hard data; by the number of Seychelles magpie robins in the next generation. This is why any fledgling is significant for the Aride population and the wider global population and so the recent fledgling from monitored Nest box Number 9 is no exception.
However, the ultimate aim of any reintroduction programme is that a species independently establishes and maintains viable breeding territories. For Aride’s Seychelles magpie robin population, the next step is for the first generation birds (those born on the island from introduced parent birds) to begin to naturally colonise the remainder of the island and live and breed independently of additional support. This is what makes the second of Aride’s new arrivals even more special. The fledgling recently recorded is being raised by two Aride born robins, and has not been observed as part of the daily feeding regime on the plateau but away from the water station and nest boxes, on the lower slopes of the hill forest. Evidence, were it even needed, that given but a small opportunity to cling to survival by us, a species will seize it and succeed – leaving the only assistance required from the Aride team to be but witnesses.
The Island Conservation Society promotes the conservation and restoration of island ecosystems.
By John Scoggins