THREATENED SPECIES SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE Established under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

The Minister’s delegate approved this conservation advice on 01/10/2015

Conservation Advice

Pterodroma Mollis

soft-plumaged petrel

Conservation Status

Pterodroma mollis (soft-plumaged petrel) is listed as Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwlth) (EPBC Act). The species is eligible for listing as Vulnerable as, prior to the commencement of the EPBC Act, it was listed as Vulnerable under Schedule 1 of the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992 (Cwlth).

The main factor that is the cause of the species being eligible for listing in the Vulnerable category is its small breeding population size. The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 considered the Australian breeding population of soft-plumaged petrel as Critically Endangered under Criterion D (population <50 mature individuals) (Garnett et al., 2011). The Threatened Species Scientific Committee are using the findings of Garnett et al., (2011) to consider whether reassessment of the conservation status of each of threatened birds listed under the EPBC Act is required.

Description

The soft-plumaged petrel has a whitish forehead with darker mottling, and a broad blackish eye-mark. The back is blue-grey, wings similar, but with dark brownish slate 'M' shaped band, and the tail is grey. The bill is black. The legs are flesh-pink with black tipped webs (Pizzey & Knight 1999).

The soft-plumaged petrel is often seen in small groups flying fast near the surface of the water.

There are scientific disagreements on the taxonomy of this species. The species limits are in dispute and the taxonomy of subspecies unresolved (Bretagnolle 1995).

Two subspecies, P. m. mollis (Gough and Antipodes Island) and P. m. dubia (Amsterdam, Crozet, Kerguelen, Prince Edward and Marion Islands) are widely accepted. A third form, P. m. deceptornis (Amsterdam Island), which has a similar call to the Maatsuyker Island birds (Bretagnolle 1995), is rarely recognised. Although the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000 (Garnett and Crowley 2000) tentatively ascribed records of the species breeding in Australia to P. m. deceptornis, the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 rejects any such attribution following the inability of Wiltshire et al., (2004) to ascribe birds from Maatsuyker Island held in the hand to any subspecies. As such, the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 considers the whole species as one entity (Garnett et al., 2011).

Distribution and Habitat

In Australian waters, the soft-plumaged petrel breeds at two sites: on Maatsuyker Island off Tasmania (Wiltshire et al., 2004) and on Macquarie Island (Way et al., 2009).

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Soft-plumaged petrels breed in burrows among rocks and tussocks. The population on Maatsuyker Island is very small: six nests had eggs in 2001–2002, of which four had fledglings at the end of the season, and five nests had eggs in 2002–2003 (one in a different burrow from the 2001–2002 season) of which three had fledglings. As such, there were at least seven breeding burrows, equating to 14 individuals (Wiltshire et al., 2004). A single chick was found in 2006–2007 on Macquarie Island (Way et al., 2009). The global population is estimated at five million mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015).

The distribution of this species is not known to overlap with any EPBC Act-listed threatened ecological community.

The Department of the Environment has prepared survey guidelines for Australia's threatened birds. The survey guidelines are intended to provide guidance for stakeholders on the effort and methods considered appropriate when conducting a presence/absence survey for birds listed as threatened under the EPBC Act. http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/survey- guidelines-australias-threatened-birds-guidelines-detecting-birds-listed-threatened

Threats

The only potential threat on Maatsuyker Island is the accidental introduction of predators (Wiltshire et al., 2004). Introduced predators, including cats,(Felis catus), rats, (Rattus rattus) and Wekas, (Gallirallus australis), may have been responsible for the modern absence of the petrel from Macquarie Island (Brothers 1984). Eradication programs, the last completed in 2014, for feral cats, rabbits, rats and mice have removed all invasive alien mammals from Macquarie Island.

Conservation Actions

Conservation and Management Actions

Habitat Loss, Disturbance and Modification • Continue to manage Maatsuyker and Macquarie Island in such a way that human disturbance is minimised. Predation • Continue strict quarantine management practices for Maatsuyker and Macquarie Island to reduce the risk of any invasive species (re)establishing on the islands.

Survey and Monitoring priorities

• Continue to monitor population numbers on Maatsuyker Island. • Include monitoring for soft-plumaged petrels in monitoring programs occurring on Macquarie Island to detect any breeding occurrences.

This list does not necessarily encompass all actions that may be of benefit to the soft- plumaged petrel, but highlights those that are considered to be of highest priority at the time of preparing the Approved Conservation Advice.

References cited in the advice BirdLife International (2015) Species factsheet: Pterodroma mollis. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 28/05/2015. Bretagnolle V (1995) Systematics of the Soft-plumaged Petrel Pterodroma mollis (Procellariidae): new insight from the study of vocalizations. Ibis 137, 207–218.

Pterodroma mollis (soft-plumaged petrel) conservation advice Page 2 of 3 Brothers NP (1984) Breeding, distribution and status of Burrow-nesting Petrels at Macquarie Island. Australian Wildlife Research 11, 113–131. Garnett S, Crowley GM (2000) The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000. Environment Australia, Canberra. Garnett ST, Szabo JK, Dutson G (2011) The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. Pizzey, G. & F. Knight (1999). The Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Pymble, Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Reid TA, Hindell MA, Eades DW, Newman M (2002) Seabird Atlas of South-eastern Australian Waters. Birds Australia Monograph 4. Schreiber EA, Burger J (2002) Biology of Marine Birds. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Way S, McInnes J, Derry A (2009) ‘Baseline population monitoring of key seabird species, Macquarie Island Marine Park: Report on the 2008/09 season’. Unpublished report produced for the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, Hobart. Wiltshire A, Hamilton S, Brothers N (2004) First record of Soft-plumaged Petrels, Pterodroma mollis, breeding in Australia. Emu 104, 363–368. Woehler EJ, Hodges CL, Watts DJ (1990) ‘An atlas of the pelagic distribution and abundance of seabirds in the southern Indian Ocean 1981 to 1990’. ANARE Research Notes 77.

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