Bonin petrel
Bonin petrel | |
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On Midway Atoll | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Procellariiformes |
Family: | Procellariidae |
Genus: | Pterodroma |
Species: | P. hypoleuca
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Binomial name | |
Pterodroma hypoleuca (Salvin, 1888)
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The Bonin petrel or nunulu[2] (Pterodroma hypoleuca) is a seabird in the family Procellariidae. It is a small gadfly petrel that is found in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Its secretive habits, remote breeding colonies and limited range have resulted in few studies and many aspects of the species' biology are poorly known.
Taxonomy
The Bonin petrel was
The Bonin petrel is currently thought to be closely related to the
Description
The Bonin petrel is a small gadfly petrel, 30 cm long with a wingspan of around 67 cm. It has a white head with a black cap and face markings; overall the head often has a scaled appearance. Its pale grey upperparts have darker primaries and wing coverts creating an "M" mark across the back. The underwing is white with dark edging and a patch at the carpal joint and across underwing coverts. The tail is dark grey, and the rest of the plumage is white, except for a dark half collar on the breast. Like the rest of the Pterodroma petrels the black bill is short and hooked. The legs and feet are pink with dark patches.
Distribution and population
Despite the species's name, 995,000 individuals, about 99% of the total population, breed on the
Behaviour
Diet
The Bonin petrel and the closely related mottled petrel are the only Pterodroma petrels with a
Breeding
The Bonin petrel breeds in dense
The species is thought to mate for life (like other
Migration
After the breeding season both chicks and adults
Relationship with humans
Prior to the arrival of humans the Bonin petrel nested on the main Hawaiian Islands, fossil remains have been found on Kauai, Oahu and Molokai. These bones have been found in association with human archaeology, strongly implying that they were a food source for Polynesian settlers, along with other seabirds. The species was extirpated from the main islands prior to the arrival of Europeans.
The species is currently threatened by introduced species, particularly rats.[11] Polynesian rats and black rats have devastated populations of Bonin petrels in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, primarily by taking eggs. Polynesian rats introduced to Kure Atoll were such a problem for Bonin petrels that for a five-year period in the 1960s not a single chick fledged (hatching success can be as high as 90% in the absence of introduced predators). Similar devastation occurred on Midway, where black rats introduced in 1943 (the same black rats that caused the extinction of the Laysan rail) reduced the population of Bonin petrels from 500,000 birds to 32,000 by 1995.[12] Rabbits introduced to Lisianski Island destroyed nesting habitat and undermined nesting burrows. Habitat destruction limits breeding success on some islands, especially as it increases competition with more aggressive species like the wedge-tailed shearwater.
Conservation measures are in place to protect the Bonin petrel and other seabirds that share the species' breeding islands.
References
- ^ . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Gregg, Jason (12 May 2021). "Decolonizing Seabirds". Hakai Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-05-12. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
- ^ Salvin, Osbert (1888). "Critical notes on the Procellariidae". Ibis. 5th Series. 6: 351–360 [359].
- ^ Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 76.
- ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1856). "Espèces nouvelles d'oiseaux d'Asie et d'Amérique, et tableaux paralléliques des Pélagiens ou Gaviae". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French). 42: 764–776 [768].
- ^ Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Petrels, albatrosses". IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- .
- ^ Harrison, C. S., T. S. Hida, M. P. Seki. (1983). "Hawaiian seabird feeding ecology". Wildl. Monogr. 85: 171.
- ^ a b Grant, Gilbert; Warham, John; Pettit, Ted; Whittow, Causey (1983). "Reproductive Behavior and Vocalizations of the Bonin Petrel" (PDF). The Wilson Journal. 95 (4): 522–539.
- JSTOR 1521854.
- ^ Seto, N. W. H., and D. O’Daniel. 1999. Bonin Petrel (Pterodroma hypoleuca). In The Birds of North America, No. 385 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.