Natural recolonisation of sub-Antarctic Marion Island by Common Diving Petrels Pelecanoides urinatrix

Abstract

Nocturnal burrow-nesting seabirds are notoriously difficult to study and can go unnoticed for years in remote areas. One of these species is the Common Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix, which has a circumpolar breeding distribution in the Southern Ocean, including at the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. At Marion Island, the larger of the two islands, the species was extirpated by cats that were introduced in 1948. The cats were eradicated by 1991, and Common Diving Petrels were discovered in burrows in coastal Poa cookii (Cook’s tussock grass) on a steep south-facing slope in Goodhope Bay during April 2015. Subsequent surveys in October 2015 and February 2016 confirmed breeding over a 1-ha area. In 2019/2020, breeding phenology and success was studied in 36 nests at the same site. Birds called from their burrows from mid-September, laying started in early October, and the first chick was observed on 20 December. Hatching peaked in early January and chicks fledged from the end of February to mid-March. This breeding phenology is similar to that at the neighbouring Crozet Archipelago. Overall nest survival was 46.4 ± 9.2% (mean ± SE; 95% CI: 29.5–64.1%), with most failures happening around hatching time. Further monitoring is needed to assess whether introduced House Mice Mus musculus contributed to the low hatching success. Common Diving Petrels were discovered breeding in other coastal areas, mostly in the south and east of the island. It is unlikely that breeding by this species was overlooked for three decades, suggesting that the elimination of cats allowed Common Diving Petrels to recolonise the island.