Cahows Recolonize

Cahows settling right in for the first time, birds have been seen pairing up in nests on Nonsuch IslandTim Hall
Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Unique success story: a cahow chick on Nonsuch Island. *File photo by Andrew Dobson Bermuda's national bird has begun properly colonizing new land for the first time in at least 400 years. In recent weeks the Cahow, or Bermuda petrel, has returned to Bermuda for its annual breeding season. And for the first time birds have been seen pairing up in nests on Nonsuch Island. Individual birds have previously visited the island and explored its man-made nests, but pairs have never chosen to make Nonsuch home. Hopes are now high one or more of the females will return in January to lay eggs on Nonsuch - the first time since 1609 eggs have been laid anywhere other than three tiny and vulnerable islets in Castle Harbour. The development marks another amazing milestone in the recovery of a species that once tottered on the brink of extinction. Thought extinct for 330 years, and reduced to a meager 18 pairs when the bird was rediscovered in 1951, the hard work of conservationists has swelled the population to almost 90 pairs today. While the number is still small - compared to the estimated 500,000 pairs that greeted the first settlers in Bermuda - its steady recovery is so impressive that the Cahow Recovery Project is now lauded and copied by conservationists throughout the world. Jeremy Madeiros, head of the Cahow project and warden of nature reserve Nonsuch Island, said: "The ironic thing is, the Cahow recovery is probably better known in international conservation circles then they are among Bermudians. "Someone said to me the other day 'yeah, but the Cahow is extinct, isn't it?' It's a shame so few people know about the bird: it's our national bird, and it helped shape the history of the island. If it wasn't for the Cahow scaring away Spanish sailors, Bermuda might have been a Spanish colony and not a British one. Our whole history would be very different." (see fact box below for more on the Cahow history.) David Wingate, who helped rediscover the Cahow when he was just a boy, led the recovery project before handing over the reins to Mr. Madeiros in 2000. Now the species is no longer on the brink of extinction, Mr. Madeiros's focus has been to try to cement the recovery by encouraging the birds to colonize Nonsuch. The 14-acre Castle Harbour island is steep and forested and offers much better protection from storms than the marginal islets the Cahows currently call home. In the past few years, Mr. Madeiros has removed dozens of chicks from the islets and re-housed them on Nonsuch. To help persuade them to return and to breed he and his team have spent thousands of hours building safe concrete nests into the slopes of the island. He has also installed a speaker system that mimics the haunting call of the cahow to attract returning birds.Returning to NonsuchMr. Madeiros said: "What's really exciting this [breeding] season is that some of the chicks we moved are returning to Nonsuch and are pairing up. We hoped the birds would imprint on the island, and that appears to have happened. "We didn't expect them to start coming back and nesting for a couple of years yet so this is quite remarkable. It is the first time in 400 years that these birds have attempted to nest on new ground." Mr. Madeiros is in regular contact with conservationists around the world, including in New Zealand and Australia, where other species of petrel exist and are endangered. E-mail and the Internet and modern air travel allows conservationists to swap and share ideas readily and has greatly accelerated the Cahow project, Mr. Madeiros says. But more often than not it is conservationists elsewhere that are taking inspiration from Bermuda. Mr. Madeiros says: "The Cahow has almost become a symbol, around the world, that with the right level of commitment and hard work you can bring a critically endangered species back from the brink of extinction."