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Biodiversity: the UK Overseas Territories. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Biodiversity: the UK Overseas Territories Compiled by S. Oldfield Edited by D. Procter and L.V. Fleming ISBN: 1 86107 502 2 © Copyright Joint Nature Conservation Committee 1999 Illustrations and layout by Barry Larking Cover design Tracey Weeks Printed by CLE Citation. Procter, D., & Fleming, L.V., eds. 1999. Biodiversity: the UK Overseas Territories. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Disclaimer: reference to legislation and convention texts in this document are correct to the best of our knowledge but must not be taken to infer definitive legal obligation. Cover photographs Front cover: Top right: Southern rockhopper penguin Eudyptes chrysocome chrysocome (Richard White/JNCC). The world’s largest concentrations of southern rockhopper penguin are found on the Falkland Islands. Centre left: Down Rope, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific (Deborah Procter/JNCC). The introduced rat population of Pitcairn Island has successfully been eradicated in a programme funded by the UK Government. Centre right: Male Anegada rock iguana Cyclura pinguis (Glen Gerber/FFI). The Anegada rock iguana has been the subject of a successful breeding and re-introduction programme funded by FCO and FFI in collaboration with the National Parks Trust of the British Virgin Islands. Back cover: Black-browed albatross Diomedea melanophris (Richard White/JNCC). Of the global breeding population of black-browed albatross, 80 % is found on the Falkland Islands and 10% on South Georgia. Background image on front and back cover: Shoal of fish (Charles Sheppard/Warwick -
Plastics and Waterbirds: Incidence and Impacts
AGREEMENT ON THE CONSERVATION OF Doc. AEWA/MOP 7.28 AFRICAN-EURASIAN MIGRATORY WATERBIRDS Agenda item: 20 Original: English 06 September 2018 7th SESSION OF THE MEETING OF THE PARTIES 04-08 December 2018, Durban, South Africa “Beyond 2020: Shaping flyway conservation for the future” PLASTICS AND WATERBIRDS: INCIDENCE AND IMPACTS (Compiled by Peter Ryan, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa, on behalf of RSPB) Background Through Resolution 6.9, the Meeting of the Parties recognised the potential impacts to migratory seabirds resulting from the ingestion of plastics, microplastics and other forms of marine litter (marine debris), recalled the CMS Resolutions 10.4 and 11.30 on marine debris, requiring Parties to work collectively and with the relevant Regional Seas Conventions on reducing the impacts of marine debris on migratory species and requested the Technical Committee, subject to the availability of financial and in-kind resources, in consultation with CMS, to assess any threats posed to migratory seabirds listed by AEWA from the ingestion of plastics, of microplastics and other forms of marine litter (marine debris) and to provide advice on appropriate responses in this regard to the Meeting of Parties. This task had required outsourcing and thanks to the generous funding provided by the Government of the Netherlands, the production of a review to assess the threats of plastics and microplastics to AEWA seabird populations was commissioned to RSPB and the BirdLife International Global Seabirds Programme, albeit late in the triennium. It was reviewed by the Technical and Standing Committees and approved for submission to MOP7 in August 2018. -
Tristan Endemic Land-Bird Species
UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum Championing UK’s most special species: the wildlife of UK’s Overseas Territories (UKOTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) FACT-SHEET ON: Endemic land-birds UK Overseas Territory: Tristan da Cunha The Tristan da Cunha archipelago (37°08’ S, 12°28’ W) comprises six islands lying 1,900 km SSW of Saint Helena. Tristan Island, with an area of 96 km2, is the only inhabited island of the archipelago, with a population of 293 people (2016) who claim it as the most remote settlement in the world. It was first permanently settled in 1810. At 2062m, the summit of the shield volcano that forms Tristan Island, is the highest point in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. Within 40 km SW of Tristan Island lie Inaccessible Island (14 km2, up to 600m high) and the Nightingale Island group comprising Nightingale Island (3.4 km2, up to 400m high) and Middle and Stolenhoff islands (both < 1 km2). Gough Island (which is staffed by South African weather station personnel on 1-year shifts) is a further 350 km SE of Tristan Island, with an area of 65 km2 and height of 910m, consisting of a main island and several islets and rocks. The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) attributed to the Tristan archipelago extends to around Gough Island, making it the second largest in the South Atlantic, at 754,720 km2 in area. This island group supports 7 endemic land-bird species: 2 rails, 1 thrush and 4 buntings which evolved from South American finches – plus 1 rail and 1 bunting which went extinct on Tristan before 1900. -
Ecography ECOG-04917 Latham, A
Ecography ECOG-04917 Latham, A. D. M., Latham, M. C., Wilmshurst, J. M., Forsyth, D. M., Gormley, A. M., Pech, R. P., Perry, G. L. W. and Wood, J. R. 2019. A refined model of body mass and population density in flightless birds reconciles extreme bimodal population estimates for extinct moa. – Ecography doi: 10.1111/ecog.04917 Supplementary material Supplementary Material Appendix 1 1 Table A1. Extant flightless bird data used to model the relationship between body mass and population density under three alternative scenarios (Low, Medium, High) created to represent, for a given species, density of populations from different habitats (i.e. more or less suitable) or populations more or less impacted by human activities. Male Female Density scenario- 2 Human Family Binomial Species weight weight (individuals/km ) Habitat1 Reference Impact (g) (g) Low Medium High 0.03 – – DSD High Lowest estimate; Okello et al. (2016) 0.15 – – DSD Medium Estimate from inside SNP; Magige et al. (2009) – 0.08 – DSD High Highest estimate; Okello et al. (2016) – 0.16 – DSD Medium Overall density estimate; Magige et al. (2009) Struthionidae Struthio camelus Ostrich 128,000 100,000 Mean of upper and lower estimates; Brown et al. – 0.70 – DSD Medium (1982) – – 0.25 DSD Medium Estimate from outside SNP; Magige et al. (2009) Estimate for plains with low predation; Brown et al. – – 0.80 DSD Low (1982) Lower range estimate in agro-ecosystem; Giordano 0.05 – – NDSG High et al. (2008) Upper range estimate in natural grassland; Giordano – 0.86 – NDSG Medium Rheidae Rhea americana Greater rhea 25,000 20,000 et al. -
Tristan Da Cunha Biodiversity Action Plan
Tristan Biodiversity Action Plan (2006 – 2010) Tristan Island Government in partnership with The Royal Society for the The University of Cape Town Protection of Birds January 2006 Tristan da Cunha Biodiversity Action Plan Enquiries relating to this plan: Simon Glass Conservation Officer Tristan [email protected] James Glass Head of Tristan Natural Resources Department Tristan [email protected] Sarah Sanders Country Programmes Manager UK Overseas Territories RSPB [email protected] Cover photograph: Atlantic Yellow-nosed albatross on Nightingale Island with Tristan in the background All photos by: Paul Tyler, Alison Rothwell, Erica Sommer and James Glass Foreword by Lewis Glass Acting Administrator, Tristan da Cunha From the moment Tristão d’Acunha first sighted the islands in 1506, Tristan da Cunha has been recognised as a unique place, with an assemblage of wildlife found nowhere else on the globe. Our very way of life on Tristan has always been dependant on the sustainable harvest of the natural resources of the island, and careful management has protected this resource for future generations. For the first time the Tristan islanders are now fully involved in the conservation of our unique natural heritage, not only for the economy of the islands, but also for the enlightenment and enjoyment of current and future generations. This plan will guide and encourage our efforts to protect our unique islands. Lewis Glass Acting Administrator Tristan da Cunha October 2005 2 By Mike Hentley Administrator, Tristan da Cunha Residents on Tristan, the world’s most isolated island community, well understand the need to live in harmony with nature. -
Tristan Da Cunha Tristan Da Cunha Cape Town
AC3 Doc/Inf 28 Agenda Item No. 11.3 Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels Third Meeting of Advisory Committee Valdivia, Chile, 19 – 22 June 2007 ________________________________________________________________ UKOT IBAs Tristan de Cuhna Author: AFRICA AC3 Doc/Inf 28 Agenda Item No. 11.3 Tr istan da Cunha (including Gough Island) Beau W. Rowlands (updated b y Geoff Hilton, 2004) Alison R othwell Tr istran from Nightingale, with a pair of Y ellow -nosed Albatrosses General introduction The Dependency of T ristan da Cunha, which covers both 217 miles (350 km) to the south-south-east. L ying the Tr istan group (Tristan, Inaccessible, Nightingale, somewhat east of the crest of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, near Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands) and Gough Island, has a its junction with the aseismic W alvis Ridge, the islands rise total land area of 69 square miles (179 square km). The from a sea depth of about 3,500 m. At least 212 plant taxa islands are of volcanic origin, of varying geological age and have been r ecorded, including 35 native ferns and 58 native stage of erosion, the oldest r ocks dating back 18 million flowering plants. Of these, 20 fern and 34 flowering plant years. However, the three largest islands all show evidence taxa are considered to be endemic. There are no r eptiles, of r ecent activity, and therefore cannot be r egarded as amphibians or freshwater fish, and there are no r ecords, volcanically extinct. Isolated, the five islands of the T ristan other than poultry, of introduced birds. -
Downloaded from 392 on 15/07/2019
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.20.427508; this version posted January 21, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 1 Title: Characterising the spatio-temporal threats, conservation hotspots, and conservation 2 gaps for the most extinction-prone bird family (Aves: Rallidae). 3 4 Authors: Lucile Lévêquea*, Jessie C. Buettela,b, Scott Carvera, Barry W. Brooka,b 5 ([email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected]) 6 7 a School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 8 7001, Australia 9 b ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), Australia 10 11 *corresponding author: [email protected], School of Natural Sciences, University 12 of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia. (Ph:) +61 473 446 744 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.20.427508; this version posted January 21, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 13 ABSTRACT 14 With thousands of vertebrate species now threatened with extinction, there is an urgent need 15 to understand and mitigate the causes of wildlife collapse. -
St Helena (To
Important Bird Areas in Africa and associated islands – St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, including Gough Island ■ ST HELENA AND THE DEPENDENCIES OF ASCENSION ISLAND AND TRISTAN DA CUNHA, INCLUDING GOUGH ISLAND BEAU W. ROWLANDS Ascension Frigatebird Fregata aquila. (ILLUSTRATION: DAVE SHOWLER) GENERAL INTRODUCTION middle zone, 330–600 m, has an extensive vegetation cover of shrubs and grasses, but also some open ground. The humid zone, above St Helena is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom; 600 m, has a luxuriant plant cover that, in places, amounts to a Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, including Gough Island, cloud-forest, where introduced vegetation flourishes. This includes are administered as Dependencies of St Helena. Acacia, Alpinia, Araucaria, Bambusa, Buddleia, Erythrina, Eucalyptus, Ficus, Grevillia, Juniperus, Mangifera, Musa, Olea, ■ Ascension Island Pinus, Podocarpus and Psidium. Ascension is an isolated and relatively young oceanic island, lying The human population is about 1,000, made up of civilians some 100 km west of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, 1,504 km south-south- working for contractors to the RAF and USAF, and a small number west of Liberia (Cape Palmas), and 2,232 km from Brazil (Recife). of military personnel. The personnel are mainly from the UK, USA The nearest land is St Helena, 1,296 km to the south-east. Apart and St Helena, none of whom are permanent residents. User from a few beach deposits (shell-sand), the island is entirely volcanic organizations include the BBC World Service, Cable & Wireless in origin and has a rugged terrain. The relatively low and dry Communications plc, the RAF and the USAF, with their support western part is dominated by scoria cones and basaltic lava-flows, staff. -
Evolutionary History of the Galápagos Rail Revealed by Ancient
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.07.326983; this version posted October 8, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC 4.0 International license. 1 Evolutionary history of the Galápagos Rail revealed 2 by ancient mitogenomes and modern samples 3 Jaime A. Chaves1,2,*, Pedro J. Martinez-Torres2, Emiliano A. Depino3, Sebastian Espinoza- 4 Ulloa4,5, Jefferson García-Loor6, Annabel Beichman7 and Martin Stervander8,* 5 1 Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway, San Francisco, CA, USA; 6 2 Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Campus Cumbayá, 7 Quito, Ecuador; [email protected] (P.J.M.-T.) 8 3 Laboratorio de Ecología, Comportamiento y Sonidos Naturales (ECOSON), Instituto de Bio y 9 Geociencias del Noroeste Argentino (IBIGEO-CONICET), Av 9 de julio 14, Rosario de Lerma, 4405 10 Salta, Argentina; [email protected] 11 4 Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. 12 5 Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av. 12 de Octubre, Quito, Ecuador; 13 [email protected] 14 6 Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Universidad San 15 Francisco de Quito, Campus Cumbayá, Quito, Ecuador; [email protected] 16 7 Department of Genome Sciences, University of -
2020 Conservation Outlook Assessment
IUCN World Heritage Outlook: https://worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/ Gough and Inaccessible Islands - 2020 Conservation Outlook Assessment Gough and Inaccessible Islands 2020 Conservation Outlook Assessment SITE INFORMATION Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) Inscribed in: 1995 Criteria: (vii) (x) The site, located in the south Atlantic, is one of the least-disrupted island and marine ecosystems in the cool temperate zone. The spectacular cliffs of Gough and Inaccessible Islands, towering above the ocean, are free of introduced mammals and home to one of the world’s largest colonies of sea birds. Gough Island is home to two endemic species of land birds, the gallinule and the Gough rowettie, as well as to 12 endemic species of plants, while Inaccessible Island boasts two birds, eight plants and at least 10 invertebrates endemic to the island. © UNESCO SUMMARY 2020 Conservation Outlook Finalised on 02 Dec 2020 SIGNIFICANT CONCERN While none of the key values of the site has been irreversibly lost yet since its inscription on the World Heritage List in 1995 (WHC 1995), the key factor determining the conservation outlook of the site is the relationship between the extraordinary threats to the biological values of the site (particularly but not exclusively seabirds), and the significant but apparently still insufficient initiative and resources mobilized to counter this threat. Because of this mismatch, the relatively steep decline in several key bird populations and the uncertainty regarding other important biodiversity values of the site, the conservation outlook of the site remains of significant concern. IUCN World Heritage Outlook: https://worldheritageoutlook.iucn.org/ Gough and Inaccessible Islands - 2020 Conservation Outlook Assessment FULL ASSESSMENT Description of values Values World Heritage values ▶ Seabird populations Criterion:(x) Gough Island has been described as perhaps the most important seabird colony in the world (Bourne, 1981). -
Illustrations by AD CAMERON Consultant Editor DR. C.J.O. HARRISON
BIRD FAMILIES OF THE WORLD Illustrations by AD CAMERON Consultant Editor DR. C.J.O. HARRISON SjipTrlSOArt^ -\ \ SEP111980 HARRY N. ABRAMS.INC. PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK / (p6, left) Wren Troglodytes troglodytes in song. (p6. right) The tiny Firecrest Regulus ignicapillus, showing the difference between the display plumage of the crest of the female, perching on the upper end of the twig, and the male. (p7) Ruby-crowned kinglet/?egu/us calendula, the common representative of the gold crests in the forests of eastern North America. LIST OF AUTHORS E.A.A. Reverend E. A. Armstrong Hon M.A. Cantab C.J.M. C. J. Mead (Cambridge) (British Trust for Ornithology, Tring, Herts) L.A.B. L. A. Batten PhD D.W.M, D. W. Mock PhD (Nature Conservancy, London) (University of Minnesota, James Ford Belt Museum of W.R.P.B. W. R, P. Bourne PhD Natural History, Minnesota) ( Uni versily of A berdeenj K.A.M. K. A. Muller L.H.B. L. H. Brown PhD (TarongaZoo, Mosman, New South Wales) (Karen, Kenya) J.B.N. J.B. Nelson PhD P.J.K.B. P. J.K. Burton PhD (University of Aberdeen) ( British Museum Natural History, London) W.A.N. W. A. NewlandsPhD E.W.D. E. W.DawsonPhD (Riviere Noire, Mauritius) (Day's Bay, New Zealand) I,N. I. Newton PhD Ed. Editorial ( The Nature Conservancy. Edinburgh) C.R.E. C. R. EddingerPhD S.L.O. S.L.Olson PhD ( University of Hawaii, Honolulu Community College) (National Museum of Natural History, Smitfisonian M.D.E. M. D.EnglandOBE institution, Washington D.C.) (Neaiishead, Norwich) SAP. -
Convergent Morphological Responses to Loss of Flight in Rails (Aves: Rallidae)
Received: 21 January 2020 | Revised: 1 March 2020 | Accepted: 30 March 2020 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6298 ORIGINAL RESEARCH Convergent morphological responses to loss of flight in rails (Aves: Rallidae) Julien Gaspar | Gillian C. Gibb | Steve A. Trewick Wildlife & Ecology Group, School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey Abstract University, Palmerston North, New Zealand The physiological demands of flight exert strong selection pressure on avian mor- Correspondence phology and so it is to be expected that the evolutionary loss of flight capacity would Julien Gaspar, Wildlife & Ecology Group, involve profound changes in traits. Here, we investigate morphological consequences School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, of flightlessness in a bird family where the condition has evolved repeatedly. The Palmerston North, New Zealand. Rallidae include more than 130 recognized species of which over 30 are flightless. Email: [email protected] Morphological and molecular phylogenetic data were used here to compare species with and without the ability to fly in order to determine major phenotypic effects of the transition from flighted to flightless. We find statistical support for similar morphological response among unrelated flightless lineages, characterized by a shift in energy allocation from the forelimbs to the hindlimbs. Indeed, flightless birds ex- hibit smaller sterna and wings than flighted taxa in the same family along with wider pelves and more robust femora. Phylogenetic signal tests demonstrate that those differences are independent of phylogeny and instead demonstrate convergent mor- phological adaptation associated with a walking ecology. We found too that mor- phological variation was greater among flightless rails than flighted ones, suggesting that relaxation of physiological demands during the transition to flightlessness frees morphological traits to evolve in response to more varied ecological opportunities.