Now Reading: Removing 58 pigs revived Clipperton Island’s seabird colony
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Removing 58 pigs revived Clipperton Island’s seabird colony
Removing 58 feral pigs from Clipperton Island in 1958 helped its Brown and Masked Booby populations recover from about 650 birds to more than 137,000 by 2003, according to Times of India.…
The Story in Brief
Removing 58 feral pigs from Clipperton Island in 1958 helped its Brown and Masked Booby populations recover from about 650 birds to more than 137,000 by 2003, according to Times of India. American ornithologist Kenneth Stager found the pigs feeding on land crabs and disrupting nesting birds before killing all of them.
The pigs’ removal allowed land crabs to recover. The crabs controlled vegetation and young coconut palms, preserving open nesting ground for boobies on the tiny Pacific atoll. Aerial photographs counted more than 25,000 Brown Boobies and 112,000 Masked Boobies in 2003. The recovery later faced a new threat after Black Rats appeared following shipwrecks in 1999 and 2000.
The Indian Opinion
The easy story is that removing one nuisance species instantly saved an island. The record is more complicated: pigs altered crabs, vegetation and nesting space, while the bird recovery took decades and later faced Black Rats. The opposite claim, that intervention simply replaces one ecological problem with another, is also too neat. The useful test is whether rat control can protect the gains recorded after 1958.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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