Evaluating on-land capture methods for monitoring a recently rediscovered seabird, the New Zealand Storm-Petrel Fregetta maoriana
Summary
We provide a first assessment of various on-land capture methods for a procellarid seabird, the New Zealand Storm-Petrel Fregetta maoriana, which had been presumed extinct but for which a breeding site has just been discovered on Little Barrier Island. In the vicinity of an active breeding site, playback only, also involving a newly isolated call from in situ deployed sound-recording devices, could efficiently be employed for capture, while light attraction in combination with playback achieved comparable capture success further afield. We consider that these findings can be relevant for breeding ground searches and capture operations in other storm-petrel species, and more generally in seabirds that visit their breeding sites at night.
Keywords: breeding grounds, Hydrobatidae, nocturnal seabirds, population monitoring, sound attraction, spotlighting.
