St Eustatius N ation al Parks O ct o b er 2 0 1 3 N e w sle t t er 3 / 2 0 1 3

Inside this Publication...

Bridled Q uail-dove study 1 Statia Sustainability Con- 2 STENAPA Extra ference Botanist’s 10th visit to 3 Bridled Quail-dove Study Statia Red-billed Tropicbird 4 O ur current National Park intern, Catherine nevo is no stranger to the birds of.the is- breeding assessment McLaughlin, has embarked upon a popula- land, and w as excited w hen we an- Tropicbirds (cont.) 5 tion/habitat assessment of the Bridled Q uail- nounced Catherine’s plan to study this bird. dove (Geotrygon mystacea), a species of He spent three days with us recently w here ground dove that is know n only to inhabit he w alked some of the transects in our Don’t forget… certain areas of the Q uill. For the past tw o study area. He also set up a mist net in an months Catherine has been walking tran- attempt to catch one of these elusive birds, Guided Hikes: Are available sects in the Q uill in an effort to document however this was unsuccessful. the presence of this enigmatic, rather shy Bot anical Ga rden: Check out bird. Few studies have been done on this the view from the Lookout species to date, therefore the results will be Garden O pen from sunrise to of significant importance to other islands sunset. Great for picnics. that are also home to the bird. According to the Birds of the book by Raffaele et al., this dove is a ‘generally uncommon to Find us on F acebook : Keep up to date with all the rare resident in the and larger, latest happenings—Like our forested Virgin Islands; extremely rare and ‘Stenapa St. Eustatius’ and local in Puerto Rico’. The Bridled Quail-dove ‘Stenapa Youth Nature’ pages! can be distinguished from other species of dove from the w hite streak below its eye and a green-blue patch at the back of its neck. It generally roams the north/north- w estern slopes of the Q uill and can also be found inside the crater.

REMINDER (Above: National Park intern Catherine McLaughlin has a BSc in Zoology) Lionfish are We have also installed cameras in an at- venomous and tempt to document the presence of this should only be dove, and in fact our cameras have cap- tured images of the bird. The cameras are removed by Marine triggered by a heat differential, however, Park Staff. and given Statia’s warm climate and the small size of the dove, they are only trig- (Above: Bridled Q uail-dove in the Q uill) gered w hen it is closer than a metre. Never- If you have any theless, w e do have photographic docu- questions or a Catherine is assisted in her project by Na- mentation of the dove. A paper containing tional Park Ranger Hannah Madden and Dr. the results of this study will be submitted to Lionfish sighting Adrian Delnevo, w ho has visited Statia nu- the Journal of Ornithology for please call us on merous times to conduct bird trainings. Del- peer review in the near future. 318 2884 Page 2 STE N APA Extra Focus on Statia Species Stenapa Staff at Sustainability Conference Director Steve Piontek and National Hannah Madden presented the results of STEN APA wishes to congratulate STDF for organizing another Park Ranger Hannah Madden w ere this year’s Red-billed Tropicbird breeding excellent conference around the guest speakers at this year’s assessment study (detailed info on pages Sustainability Conference, hosted by 4 and 5). Both presentations were w ell issue of sustainability, w hich is so the St. Eustatius Tourism received and created some lively pertinent in today’s society, and for recognizing the importance of Development Foundation (STDF). discussion and questions among the bringing this issue to the fore. The The theme, “Tourism and Water: participants. Caribbean in Protecting our Common Future”, particular has w as in line with that chosen by the contributed least World Trade Organization for in terms of Tourism Day. This is the second year greenhouse gas STDF has organized its conference, emissions, yet will w hich included local, regional and be one of the international speakers from a wide regions that variety of sectors, including hotels, suffers the local utilities suppliers, the Caribbean consequences of Tourism Organization, N G Os and climate change the Caribbean Community Climate most in the Change Center. future. Steve Piontek opened the first day with his presentation about coastal We look forw ard management. He highlighted the to collaborating need for cooperation and (Above: NP Ranger Hannah Madden with STDF again communication in order to address talking about tropicbird breeding in 2014 for the third Statia the needs of the various success) Sustainability Conference. stakeholders w hose livelihoods depend upon the biodiversity O n the final day of the conference, present in the coastal zone of Statia. Madden took some of the delegates on a guided hike into the crater of the Q uill He w ent on to describe some of the threats w hich face the coastal zone w here they saw tiny frogs, scorpion of Statia, the consequences of these spiders, snakes, tarantulas and a variety threats and the management actions of birds and insects. required to mitigate these threats.

(Above: Director Steve Piontek addressing the audience about coastal management)

(Above: Some of the delegates from St. Maarten enjoying the view at the crater rim) N e wsletter 3 / 2013 Page 3 Botanist celebrates his 10th visit to Statia Dr. Frank Axelrod, botanist and Environmental Protection in the The monitoring program on Statia herbarium manager at the University Caribbean (EPIC), w ho is w orking hard to caught the attention of nature of Puerto Rico (UPR), has just protect an area of land called the Emilio enthusiasts, Michiel Boeken and Mike celebrated his tenth visit to our tiny Wilson Estate. We hope this result in the Bechtold. Consequently, a parallel island. He has been coming to Statia protection of one of the last remaining monitoring program w as set up in since 2009 to collect and document forests on St. Maarten. 2012, providing an opportunity to the island’s plants, with the ultimate compare the health of populations goal of publishing a flora checklist. Orchids across islands, with Saba perhaps Statia is home to around 500 native having higher goat densities than plants, a large percentage of w hich Statia. A few more years of monitoring One of Statia’s loveliest orchids is will be required to evaluate the can be found in the Q uill and Brassavola cucullata, a species that grows demographic health status of B. northern hills, although Axelrod has on shaded boulders and tree trunks in cucullata on Saba. If the islands’ covered the entire island numerous the Q uill and Boven. Each new shoot populations appear to be declining, times. produces a single, nocturnally fragrant then it becomes critical to understand flow er. Although geographically the causes. We have already identified widespread, populations of these orchids one possible issue: goats. Another may be suffering from habitat cause might be a decline in the destruction, collecting, and invasive abundance of pollinators. Adult moths species. In 2009, Axelrod’s colleagues Dr. feed on nectar and their larvae eat Jim Ackerman and Raymond Tremblay leaves. So if we are to protect these (orchid specialists and professors), joined orchids w e must also protect food NP Ranger Hannah Madden to establish plants of their pollinators, w hich a monitoring program of B. cucullata. requires us to also understand the life Every year since they have gathered cycle of these insects. demographic data, w hich will be used to assess population viability and make Such plant-animal interactions are often recommendations for management. not simple. For example, one possible Reproductive effort and success are scenario might be that goats actually critical for population longevity. Fruit facilitate orchid population growth, if production in B. cucullata is very low, but their appetite for orchid leaves is typical of those tropical orchids that have compensated. The larval food plants of nectarless flow ers and attract pollinators the tw o identified moth pollinators are by deceit. The late Stew art Chipka (Above: Dr. Axelrod in the crater next from plant families that are loaded with reported tw o pollinators on Saba: to an as-yet-unidentified palm toxic secondary compounds (e.g. hawkmoths Manduca sexta and species) Solanaceae and Anacardiaceae). If Protambulix strigilis, both of w hich are goats avoid them, but eat their During his last visit in September, w e widespread in the Neotropics and along potential competitors, larval food plant spent tw o days in the Q uill, two in with perhaps other sympatric species, availability may actually increase, the northern hills, and the final day may pollinate B. cucullata. providing more naive moth pollinators of fieldw ork traversing other areas to be duped by deceitful orchids! O nly Preliminary analyses of the Statia such as tow n and coastal areas. We field observations and experimentation demographic data suggest that the w ere surprised to find a species of will tell. palm in the crater of the Q uill, and populations may be stable, but are Dr. Axelrod confirms he added a largely dependent on a few very large (Orchid text: J. Ackerman/Photo: H. number of species to his checklist. He plants for reproduction, making the Madden) will return for his final visit in populations seemingly vulnerable. November. It has been a pleasure Furthermore, it appears that goats are w elcoming Dr. Axelrod to Statia the having detrimental effects. Plants that are within easy reach of goats are 1) more past five years and Stenapa is grateful likely to be eaten, and 2) those that are for his tireless dedication to eaten are more likely to suffer mortality. documenting the island’s flora. The free-range goat populations on Statia Dr. Axelrod shows no signs of have been increasing and are a cause for stopping, either. He has just been concern for the native flora and fauna, to asked to document the flora of St. the extent that ow ners must tag their Maarten by Rueben Thompson of animals or expect them to be culled. Page 4 STE N APA Extra Focus on Statia Species Red-billed Tropicbird Monitoring

We visited each nest- much data as possible. The cameras ing site and each pri- w ere set up to take one photo every 5

mary nest on average minutes 24 hours a day and also to take once per w eek. At three photos, one second apart, every each nest visited w e time a variance in temperature w as

noted the number of detected. The main focus of the cam- adults and w hether eras w as to capture photos of intro- each nest contained duced predators, namely cats (Felis ca-

an egg or chick. We tus) and rats (Rattus norvegicus). measured standard Although the cameras did capture im- morphometrics for ages of cats and rats, the number w as each bird (adult and small compared with the total number chick). Each bird w as of photographs taken (21 out of over also w eighed using a 263,000 images!). T he iconic Red-billed Tropicbird is a spring scale and previously weighed l arge seabird that spends most of its life bag. far out at sea foraging for food. Tropic- birds are plunge divers, hunting for prey such as squid and flying fish. These birds can live up to around 20 years and lay just one egg per season. There are estimated to be around 8,000 pairs of tropicbirds globally, 40% of w hich nest on Saba and Statia. Given the signifi- cance of this number, both conserva- tion foundations recognize how impor- tant our small islands are to the global population. In 2011 and 2012, we received shock- ing news that tropicbird chicks w ere (Above: photograph of a cat taken by falling prey to feral cats at one of the one of the cameras) nesting colonies on Saba. Given that these birds lay one egg per season, this (Above: a tropicbird chick) could have a dramatic negative impact All birds w ere banded using numbered Results on the long-term viability of the popula- aluminium bands, w hich w ere manu- tion. Following training from Dr. Adrian The results of our study showed that, factured specifically for St Eustatius. Delnevo on Saba in 2011 and a seabird across the nesting colonies studied, the These purple bands have the prefix EUX w orkshop in the Bahamas in 2012, w e tropicbird population had an average followed by four digits. Adults w ere decided to conduct a similar study on apparent hatching success (chicks only measured w hen first encountered our ow n population. hatched from eggs laid) of 60%, as to minimise disruption to their natural show n in the table below. (Below: Map of Statia showing study behaviour. Chicks w ere removed from sites visited w eekly) the nest and measured on each visit to record the growth and w eight of each chick. Healthy chicks are so w ell fed by their parents that they often w eigh more than the adults at the time of fledging. We also deployed ten cameras to monitor activ- ity at the entrance/exit of nests. Where possible, (Above: Apparent hatching success cameras w ere deployed at across all nesting sites) nests with eggs or young chicks in order to collect as Page 5 STE N APA Extra Focus on Statia Species Page 5 Tropicbirds (cont.) Of the eggs that did hatch, average also install baited traps. We envisage ap parent fledging success across all the traps will catch rodents, as w ell as sites w as almost 80%. land-crabs, and possibly lizards. We will

bait traps w eekly and return the follow- ing day to check their contents.

(Above: This tropicbird chick did not die from predation. It is possible that it re- ceived insufficient food from its parents, but the actual cause of death remains unknow n) (Above: Apparent fledging success across all nesting sites) (Above: rat caught in a baited trap on Acknowledgements Pilot Ridge) We w ould like to thank former National Park intern Andrew Ellis for devoting This gave us an average apparent much of his time and energy to this breeding success of just under 50%. project during his six-month stay on Statia. We are also grateful to high school student Jose-Luis Balensuela, w ho assisted with fieldw ork once a w eek, as w ell as the various Stenapa interns and volunteers that joined us in the field. Thank you!

(Above: a nocturnal land crab seem- ingly being chased aw ay by an aggra- vated tropicbird)

(Above: Apparent breeding success across all sites)

Our results show that Statia’s tropicbird population has a relatively low hatching success at three of the five colonies studied. In contrast, the overall appar- ent fledging success is relatively high. (Above: Jose-Luis and Andrew on Zee- However, w e are concerned about the landia beach) relatively high levels of egg loss at three This project w as funded by a small sites. In particular, Pilot Hill is a remote grant from the Society for the Conserva- area along the north-w estern coast that tion and Study of Caribbean Birds is rarely, if ever, accessed by humans. (SCSCB) and the US National Fish and Based on the results of our 2012-2013 Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), w ho re- study, w e plan to investigate the cause ceived funds from BP in compensation of egg loss at Pilot Hill, during the 2013- for the 2010 Gulf oil spill w hich affected (Above: Although goats are not preda- 2014 nesting season. This will involve most of the seabird species that nest in tors of tropicbird eggs or chicks, they the deployment of cameras to docu- the Caribbean. may have an indirect effect on nests. ment the progress of suitable nests. The This photograph shows tw o young If you w ould like a copy of the final re- data gathered from photographs will goats found sleeping inside a nest with port, please send an email to give us information about the fre- a large entrance. The nest w as empty at [email protected] quency and timing of egg loss, cause of the time, but it does highlight the need egg loss, as w ell as the ecology of the to keep roaming grazers penned in) nest. In addition to cameras, w e will Photos by Hannah Madden STEN APA is an environmental not-for-profit foundation on St Eustatius and w as established in 1988.The purpose of the Foundation is the acquisition, S t E u s t a t i u s N a t i o n a l P a r k s preservation, protection and administration of parcels of land/ water on , w orthy of preservation, due to; a. its scenic beauty and/or presence of flora and fauna important in scientific and cultural respect or valuable from a geological or historical point of view; b. its purpose to serve for the w ell being, the education, and the recreation of the Sint Eustatius population as w ell as that of visitors, all this with due observance of the primary requirement of preservation. STEN APA is legally mandated by the Island Council to manage the St Eustatius National Marine Park, The Q uill / Boven National Park and the Miriam Schmidt Botanical Gardens . President: Irving Bro w n Gallo ws Bay z/n Vice President: Lo wer Tow n Treasurer: Hilda Doek St Eustatius, Secretary: Gene Herbert Dutch Caribbean Phone: +599 318 2884 E-mail: [email protected] www.statiapark.org

Friends of STEN APA

STEN APA w ould like to thank the Blue Bead Restaurant Franky”s Bar en Restaurant Golden Era Hotel, Bar, Restaurant & following businesses for supporting us. Duggins Shoppingcentre Their donations make it possible for us Conference facility

to continue our mandate of managing The Old Gin House Lyn”s dream Bakery: the protected areas of Saint Eustatius. 4piek Travel Agency. Each of the following has made a Yummy Tummy Bar & Restaurant

contribution to the Friends of STEN APA. Chamber of Commerce & Industry St. Opa”s snack We w ould like to encourage all of you Eustatius & Saba. Statiahousingandservices w ho receive this newsletter to support (harbervieu w app these businesses. Super Burger ice cream and shakes University of St. Eustatius School of Fay Bar & Restaurant (a.k.a. Sonny”s Medicine In divid u als w h o joi n Frie n ds of place) STEN APA will receive the following d isc o u n ts fr o m o u r su p p o rti n g I.F. Rivers Enterprises N.V. businesses. Original Fruit Tree bar & restaurant

Franky”s Bar and Restaurant: 1 regular Scubaqua Dive Centre drink by lunch or dinner Coolcorner: Golden Era Hotel, Bar, Restaurant and Peso”s Supermarket Conference Centre: 10 % off dinner bill higher than $60,- Golden Rock Mini Market Yummy Tummy Bar and Restaurant: 10 Brown”s car rental & garage % off dinner bill Dutch Plumbing Services Fay Bar & Restaurant: 1 beer or soda with dinner more than $ 10,- Golden Rock Dive Center I.F. Rivers Enterprises N.V.: 10 % Hai Zhu N.V. Julie Supermarket discount on merchandise Modentes Tandtechnisch laboratorium

All Run supermarket.