Newly discovered seabird placed straight on critically endangered list

By Tom Campbell via SWNS

A new discovered seabird has been placed straight on the "critically endangered" species list.

The fate of the New Caledonian storm petrel, found in the South Pacific, rests on scientists being able to find their breeding grounds to protect.

The population is estimated at between 100 and 1,000 pairs as they are nocturnal, discreet, and tend to nest on isolated islands.

The birds were first spotted off the islands' capital Noumea in 2008 and again in the Coral Sea in 2010.

Distinct from the storm petrel due to its streaked belly, three specimens collected more around 100 years ago were discovered in collections but they had been wrongly assigned.

Scientists at La Rochelle University France have identified the new species - Fregetta lineata but say its fate could be sealed unless its breeding grounds are found fast.

Dr. Vincent Bretagnolle said: "We present evidence that confirms the streaked Fregetta lineata is a valid extant species that breeds on New Caledonia and endorse the vernacular name New Caledonian Storm Petrel."

The sighting in 2008 was made because of its streaked belly, which is usually white.

Birds matching this description were also spotted in the Coral Sea, east of Australia, from the beginning of 2010.

It also resembled five museum specimens of petrels collected during Pacific expeditions around a century ago.

The museum pieces, displayed in museums around the world, had been wrongly assigned to three different species.

Recently, three of them were identified as the New Zealand storm petrel, which was thought to be extinct, but rediscovered in 2003.

Scientists initially thought this was the species which had been spotted in New Caledonia five years later.

But studying the bird's morphology and genetics revealed they were in fact members of a new distinct species.

The remaining two mysterious museum specimens, one collected from the Marquesas Islands in 1922 and one from Samoa in 1839, were confirmed to be the new species.

A third more recent specimen collected in 1973, on an island off Brisbane, Australia, was also identified.

In order to protect this new species from extinction it is vital researchers locate its breeding grounds.

The researchers have already spent many nights searching small islands in the southern lagoon of New Caledonia, but no luck.

They believe it could be located on islands in the unexplored Bouloupari Lagoon or further inland along the Tontouta River valley, where another species of petrel breeds.

Dr. Bretagnolle said: "It is now vitally important to find breeding burrows where immediate protective measures will be required.

"Compared to breeding on islets, nesting in the mountains would be far more difficult to confirm and conservation management far more difficult to implement."

Between one and five new species of bird are discovered every year, adding to the 10,000 which have already been documented worldwide.

The findings were presented in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club.