Success! Fake Birds Lure Real Seabirds Back to Island Home

For the first time in over 40 years, a Peruvian Diving-petrel chick has hatched on Chile’s Chañaral Island. The rare seabird once thrived here but was pushed out by invasive species. Now a concerted effort by environmental groups and the Chilean government to make the island habitable again have paid off.

The nonprofit Island Conservation last week announced the discovery of a newborn downy petrel chick in a naturally dug burrow on Chañaral.  Good news for the near-threatened species (listed as “endangered” just two years ago).

“Rabbits and foxes decimated the island’s sensitive desert landscape,” says Island Conservation’s Coral Wolf. “Foxes fed on yuncos, while rabbits ejected them from their nests, and stripped bare the herbs and shrubs. As a result, Diving-petrel numbers decreased dramatically.”

Starting in 2013 the conservationists began to remove the invasive rabbits from Chañaral and neighboring Choros Island (the foxes were already long gone). Once the land was cleared, the indigenous petrels had to be lured back.  The conservationists initiated a “social attraction” project on Chañaral in which they artificially mimicked the sights and sounds of a real breeding colony by broadcasting bird calls on a sound system.

Very quickly motion-sensing cameras recorded the presence of returning petrels. The conservation teams found footprints, a few naturally dug burrows, and finally, the first Peruvian Diving-petrel chick on the island in decades. The social attraction project worked so well it will now serve as a model on other islands along the coast. 

Photo credit: Ivan Torres / Island Conservation