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Electronic tracking tags have revolutionized our understanding of broad-scale movements and habitat use of highly mobile marine animals, but a large gap in our knowledge still remains for a wide range of small species. Here, we report the extraordinary transequatorial postbreeding migrations of a small seabird, the sooty shearwater, obtained with miniature archival tags that log data for estimating position, dive depth, and ambient temperature. Tracks (262 ± 23 days) reveal that shearwaters fly across the entire Pacific Ocean in a figure-eight pattern while traveling 64,037 ± 9,779 km roundtrip, the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically. Each shearwater made a prolonged stopover in one of three discrete regions off Japan, Alaska, or California before returning to New Zealand through a relatively narrow corridor in the central Pacific Ocean. Transit rates as high as 910 ± 186 km·day⁻¹ were recorded, and shearwaters accessed prey resources in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere's most productive waters from the surface to 68.2 m depth. Our results indicate that sooty shearwaters integrate oceanic resources throughout the Pacific Basin on a yearly scale. Sooty shearwater populations today are declining, and because they operate on a global scale, they may serve as an important indicator of climate change and ocean health.

Many factors have contributed to a decline in the tītī (sooty shearwater) Ardenna grisea population in Aotearoa New Zealand since at least the 1960s. The relative impacts of Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) variation, bycatch, predation, and traditional harvesting by Rakiura Māori were recently estimated in a study fitting population models to data from the period 1976–2005. Annual mean SOI was related to both adult survival and fecundity. We used the results from that study to project abundance of tītī under a range of management strategies and future SOI scenarios, based on 41 climate models. Projections over the period 2019–2070 showed marked variation across the climate models. When the proportion of chicks harvested and the level of depredation by weka Gallirallus australis were set at their historical means and the proportion of birds killed in bycatch was set at an upper bound based on current estimates, the probability of a decline ranged from 0.30 to 1.00, across all climate models. When both bycatch and depredation by weka were set to zero, the probability of a decline ranged from 0.11 to 1.00, across all climate models. Our results suggest that future abundance of tītī in Aotearoa New Zealand will depend to a large extent on SOI conditions over the coming decades. As climate-model uncertainty makes reliable prediction of future SOI conditions difficult, adaptive management is likely to be the best option for Rakiura Māori, the kaitiaki (environmental guardians) of the Rakiura Tītī Islands, to maintain sustainable tītī harvests.

A suite of factors may have contributed to declines in the tītī (sooty shearwater; Ardenna grisea ) population in the New Zealand region since at least the 1960s. Recent estimation of the magnitude of most sources of non-natural mortality has presented the opportunity to quantitatively assess the relative importance of these factors. We fit a range of population dynamics models to a time-series of relative abundance data from 1976 until 2005, with the various sources of mortality being modelled at the appropriate part of the life-cycle. We present estimates of effects obtained from the best-fitting model and using model averaging. The best-fitting models explained much of the variation in the abundance index when survival and fecundity were linked to the Southern Oscillation Index, with strong decreases in adult survival, juvenile survival and fecundity being related to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Predation by introduced animals, harvesting by humans, and bycatch in fisheries also appear to have contributed to the population decline. It is envisioned that the best-fitting models will form the basis for quantitative assessments of competing management strategies. Our analysis suggests that sustainability of the New Zealand tītī population will be most influenced by climate, in particular by how climate change will affect the frequency and intensity of ENSO events in the future. Removal of the effects of both depredation by introduced predators and harvesting by humans is likely to have fewer benefits for the population than alleviating climate effects.

Presents a method to infer important oceanographic regions for seabirds using breeding sooty shearwaters as a case study. Combines a popular machine learning algorithm (generalized boosted regression modeling), geographic information systems, long-term ecological data and open access oceanographic datasets. Notes how time series of chick size and harvest index data derived from a long term dataset of Maori ‘muttonbirder’ diaries were obtained and used as response variables in a gridded spatial model. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

Petrels, albatrosses, and storm-petrels are among the most beautiful yet least known of all the world's birds, living their lives at sea far from the sight of most people. Largely colored in shades of gray, black, and white, these enigmatic and fast-flying seabirds can be hard to differentiate, particularly from a moving boat. Useful worldwide, not just in North America, this photographic guide is based on unrivaled field experience and combines insightful text and hundreds of full-color images to help you identify these remarkable birds. The first book of its kind, this guide features an introduction that explains ocean habitats and the latest developments in taxonomy. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features such as flight manner, plumage variation related to age and molt, seasonal occurrence patterns, and migration routes. Species accounts are arranged into groups helpful for field identification, and an overview of unique identification challenges is provided for each group. The guide also includes distribution maps for regularly occurring species as well as a bibliography, glossary, and appendixes. The first state-of-the-art photographic guide to these enigmatic seabirdsIncludes hundreds of full-color photos throughoutFeatures detailed species accounts that describe flight, plumage, distribution, and moreProvides overviews of ocean habitats, taxonomy, and conservationOffers tips on how to observe and identify birds at sea

Combines tracking data from sooty and short-tailed shearwaters from three regions of New Zealand and Australia with at-sea observations of shearwaters in the Southern Ocean, physical oceanography, near surface copepod distributions, pelagic trawl data, and synoptic near-surface winds. Discusses the utility of shearwaters as indicators of Southern Ocean ecosystems. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

Kei roto tonu i te mātauranga taiao te oranga o nga mea katoa o te ao, ahakoa he kararehe, ahakoa he rākau, ahakoa he aha. Mo tēnei mahi rangahau i kōrero mātou ki ngā kaumātua e waru, no Te Atiawa me Ngāti Kuia, mo ngā tītī o tā rātou rohe o Te Tau Ihu o te Waka o Māui. Ko te nuinga o ngā kōrero he titiro ki te maha o te tītī ki taua takiwā, mehemea kei te mau pai tonu ngā kōhanga o te tītī, ki a rātou ake mahi hopu tītī, ā, ki a rātou tikanga mo te tiaki i te tītī. Te āhua nei kua iti haere te nuinga o te tītī, na te mea kua ngaro haere ngā tikanga tiaki tītī o ngā rā o mua. Ki ētahi, na ngā rāhui o te Kāwanatanga te hē, na te mea kua kore e āro ake ki te mātauranga o te Māori. Tuarua, kua iti haere te nuinga o te tītī mai te ao whānui, ina rā, kua tata mate katoa, e ai ki ētahi kōrero pēnei i te IUCN. Ko te mea kē, ka ngaro te rangatiratanga o te mātauranga taiao ka iti haere hoki te nuinga o te tītī. Nā kona e kī ai tēnei mahi rangahau, me kaha tonu te titiro ki nga mahi hopu tītī a te Māori. Me mau pono tonu ki ngā tikanga o te mātauranga taiao kia kore ai e iti haere te nuinga o ngā mea katoa o te taiao - koiana te kōrero. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) can provide valuable insights into historical abundance, ecology and conservation of species. In this study, we interviewed eight Maori kaumatua of Te Atiawa and Ngāti Kuia to document Maori traditional knowledge, or matauranga Maori, of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) of the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. Interview questions focused on shearwater abundance, breeding habitat, customary harvest, and traditional management. Matauranga Maori suggests high shearwater abundance historically, as well as traditional harvest protocols and traditional population management techniques no longer in use. Government imposed harvest bans reduced interaction with, and thus matauranga Maori of, sooty shearwaters followed by the species experiencing a worldwide decline in abundance and being classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Our study serves as an important reminder that TEK and species abundance often decline in tandem and that cultural harvest must be considered when designing conservation management strategies for species.

Big South Cape Island (Taukihepa) is a 1040 ha island, 1.5 km from the southwest coast of Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand. This island was rat-free until the incursion of ship rats (Rattus rattus) in, or shortly before, 1963, suspected to have been accidentally introduced via local fishing boats that moored at the island with ropes to the shore, and were used to transport the mutton birders to the island. This incursion was reported by the muttonbirders – local Iwi who harvest the young of titi (sooty shearwater,Puffinus griseus) – to the then New Zealand Wildlife Service (via the New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey). Investigation into the reports found ship rats had reached the island and had decimated the local land bird populations. Brian Bell and Don Merton attempted some of the first translocations of South Island saddleback (Philesturnus c. carunculatus), Stewart Island snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei) and Stead’s bush wren (Xenicus longipes variabilis) with only the saddleback being successful. Extinctions of the snipe, wren and greater short-tailed bat (Mystacina robusta) were recorded. This was the first time rats were definitively recognised as the cause of extinction of native land birds and directed further debate into the impacts of rats and how to deal with them.

Rakiura M ori (New Zealand's southernmost group of indigenous peoples) have harvested the chicks of burrow-nesting Sooty Shearwaters (T t ; Puffinus griseus ) for generations. As part of the harvest process, some families have maintained annual harvest diaries, some dating back to the 1950s. We used generalized boosted regression models, a machine-learning algorithm, to calculate a harvest index that takes into account factors that could impact the numbers of birds taken on any given hunt. For predicted vs. observed values, r 2 was between 0.59 and 0.90 for the nanao (first half of the season, when chicks are harvested from burrows during the day) and 0.67 and 0.88 for the rama (second half of the season, during which chicks are harvested from the surface at night). Exploration of the controlling factors of the models revealed that \"day of season\" plays an important role in predicting daily harvest during the second half of the season (the rama). The nightly tally in the rama peaked approximately halfway through (10-15 days in), which is probably related to the timing of birds emerging from burrows to fledge. The models also suggested that data from the rama (when chicks are 100-120 days old) may be the most suitable for long-term monitoring of populations of Sooty Shearwaters due to consistencies in calculated harvest indices between diaries. Nanao harvest indices, although less consistent, showed patterns similar to those of the rama. When comparing these data to the harvest indices calculated by general linear models by Clucas and colleagues, we found that the agreement between both indices was r 2 = 0.31 and r 2 = 0.59 for the nanao and rama, respectively. The use of machine learning to correct for extraneous factors (e.g., hunting effort, skill level, or weather) and to create standardized measures could be applied to other systems such as fisheries or terrestrial resource management.

The annual hunt of Muttonbirds (chicks of the Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus ), undertaken by the Rakiura Māori people of southern New Zealand, is economically and socially integral to their cultural identity. Muttonbirders concerned at ensuring that the hunt remains viable for coming generations have provided catch records to help ascertain historic trends in hunt success. Analysis of eight catch diaries for a 67-year period demonstrates considerable consistency across diaries in the variability of hunt success, as measured by annualized mean daily hunt tallies. A conservative estimate of the overall annual decline in hunt success is −−1.89%% (95%% CI: −−1.14%% to −−2.65%%). Birders' observations of a changing relationship between chick quality and hunt success was evidenced across diaries. Reduced hunt success from the 1990s indicates that possible adult \"“knockdowns\"” and/or sustained substantial reductions in breeding proportions have occurred. Chick size has remained constant, suggesting little change in the provisioning environment. Catch per unit effort data, provided by a single diary, confirms a link between variability in annual hunt success and chick abundance. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) are correlated with hunt success and chick size, respectively. Interannual PDO ++ (or PDO −− ) values are correlated with higher (or lower) tallies, whereas SAM ++ (or SAM −− ) values are associated with larger (or smaller) chick size. Uncertainty in the relationship between the breeding Sooty Shearwater population, chick catch, and environmental perturbation in their feeding grounds could be reduced with the inclusion of hunt time in all diary records. Ongoing prolonged decline in a top-trophic-level predator such as the Sooty Shearwater raises serious concern that long-term oceanic changes have been occurring and that long-term sustainability of muttonbirding is in doubt.