Mouse predation affects breeding success of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Dilley, Ben J.; Schoombie, Stefan; Stevens, Kim L.; Davies, Delia; Perold, Vonica; Osborne, Alexis; Schoombie, Janine; Brink, Christiaan W.; Carpenter-Kling, Tegan; Ryan, Peter G.

doi:10.1017/s0954102017000487

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Such strong preference for certain prey items suggests that mice are systematically consuming their way through the terrestrial ecosystem by exhausting preferred prey and then moving on to the next preferred prey source. The end point of this may be similar to that observed on other subantarctic islands where diet shifting from lower trophic levels to large seabirds eventually occurs (Cuthbert et al 2013(Cuthbert et al , 2014Dilley et al 2018;McClelland et al 2018). This is potentially an outcome of mice, having been present for much longer on those islands, exhausting all other available food resources.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Systematic prey preference by introduced mice exhausts the ecosystem on Antipodes Island

et al. 2020

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House mice (Mus musculus) are a widespread invasive species on islands. Where they are the sole introduced mammal they can have particularly strong negative impacts on recipient ecosystems. House mice impacts have been documented on almost every component of the terrestrial ecosystem on Southern Ocean islands, including plants, invertebrates, birds and ecosystem function. We undertook a comprehensive study to determine the impacts of house mice on Antipodes Island, New Zealand. This study was done prior to mouse eradication to inform monitoring and restoration. We used invertebrate pitfall trapping on the main Antipodes Island and neighbouring mouse-free offshore islands together with mouse stomach contents and stable isotope analyses of mouse livers to examine dietary preferences. We identified directly impacted and consumed invertebrate Orders relative to their abundance and provided a comprehensive picture of resource flow and overlap in the invaded terrestrial ecosystem. The remote terrestrial ecosystem of Antipodes Island was tightly circumscribed with strong resource overlap. Mouse diet varied seasonally with resource availability, dominated by invertebrates and land birds in summer, and plants and seabirds in winter. Invertebrates that were preferentially preyed upon were Amphipoda, Lepidoptera and some species of Coleoptera. These patterns suggest the ecosystem is annually driven by a seasonal bottom-up resource pulse over summer, where mice are a selective predator, differentially preying on invertebrates relative to invertebrate abundance. Mice appear to be exhausting preferred prey as they systematically consume their way through the terrestrial ecosystem. Land bird diet also varied seasonally and some of these birds likely competed with mice for invertebrate prey. Eradication of mice from Antipodes Island should reduce the predation on invertebrates and reduce the effects of competition and predation on land birds. This should have flow-on effects to the abundance of invertebrates and endemic land bird sub-species of pipit and snipe.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Systematic prey preference by introduced mice exhausts the ecosystem on Antipodes Island

et al. 2020

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“…Grey petrel ( Procellaria cinerea (Gmelin)) burrows were not surveyed, but are mentioned here as they are the only other petrel species on Marion Island that also breeds in large burrows (Schramm 1986). On Marion Island, grey petrels breed in caves and burrows (Schramm 1986, Dilley et al 2017b), but nests are extremely scarce; burrows are renovated in late February with peak laying from late March to mid-April (Fig. 5), so at the time of the survey, grey petrels were incubating.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Post-cat eradication, the recovery of burrow-nesting petrel numbers on Marion Island has been much slower than anticipated, and continuing predation by mice is the most probable explanation for the limited recovery of the island's petrel populations (Dilley et al 2017a). Currently, mice are suppressing the recovery of burrow-nesting petrel populations, especially among petrel species that breed in winter, through depredation of eggs and chicks (Dilley et al 2017b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clustered or dispersed: testing the effect of sampling strategy to census burrow-nesting petrels with varied distributions at sub-Antarctic Marion Island

et al. 2019

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We compared systematic and random survey techniques to estimate breeding population sizes of burrow-nesting petrel species on Marion Island. White-chinned (Procellaria aequinoctialis) and blue (Halobaena caerulea) petrel population sizes were estimated in systematic surveys (which attempt to count every colony) in 2009 and 2012, respectively. In 2015, we counted burrows of white-chinned, blue and great-winged (Pterodroma macroptera) petrels within 52 randomized strip transects (25 m wide, total 144 km). Burrow densities were extrapolated by Geographic Information System-derived habitat attributes (geology, vegetation, slope, elevation, aspect) to generate island-wide burrow estimates. Great-winged petrel burrows were found singly or in small groups at low densities (2 burrows ha−1); white-chinned petrel burrows were in loose clusters at moderate densities (3 burrows ha−1); and blue petrel burrows were in tight clusters at high densities (13 burrows ha−1). The random survey estimated 58% more white-chinned petrels but 42% fewer blue petrels than the systematic surveys. The results suggest that random transects are best suited for species that are widely distributed at low densities, but become increasingly poor for estimating population sizes of species with clustered distributions. Repeated fixed transects provide a robust way to monitor changes in colony density and area, but might fail to detect the formation/disappearance of new colonies.

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“…Most recently, M. musculus has been observed feeding on the live chicks of surface-nesting (Dilley et al 2016) and on burrowing (Dilley et al 2018) seabirds on Marion Island (Fig. 8.1b).…”

Section: Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first such occurrence on Marion Island was only observed in 2003, where attacks on surface-nesting seabirds started, seemingly independently, at different sites simultaneously across the island (Dilley et al 2016). The incidence of M. musculus attacks on affected populations of four seabird species was recorded to be high, with up to 9% chick mortality (once an attack has taken place) in surface-nesting species, and up to 100% mortality in burrowing species (Dilley et al 2016(Dilley et al , 2018) because chicks do not defend themselves against M. musculus attacks (Wanless et al 2007). However, the occurrence of feathers in the gut content of M. musculus was recorded as early as the early 1990s and was initially put down to scavenging (Smith et al 2002); it may well have been an earlier indication of active predation of seabirds by M. musculus (Smith 2008)-perhaps of the burrowing petrels.…”

Section: Vertebratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Invasions in South Africa’s Offshore Sub-Antarctic Territories

Greve

Meden

Janion‐Scheepers

2020

Biological Invasions in South Africa

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The sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands (PEIs) constitute South Africa's most remote territory. Despite this, they have not been spared from biological invasions. Here, we review what is known about invasions to the PEIs for terrestrial taxa (vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and microbes), freshwater taxa and marine taxa. Currently, Marion Island is home to 46 alien species, of which 29 are known to be invasive (i.e. they are alien species that have established and spread on the island). Prince Edward Island, which has no permanent human settlement and is visited only infrequently, has significantly fewer alien species: only eight alien species are known from Prince Edward Island, of which seven are known to be invasive. The House Mouse (Mus musculus), which occurs on Marion Island, can be considered the most detrimental invader to the islands; it impacts on plants, insects and seabirds, which result in changes to ecosystem functioning. The impacts of other terrestrial invaders are less well understood. At present, no invasive freshwater or marine taxa are known from the PEIs. We conclude by discussing how invasion threats to the PEIs are changing and how the amelioration of the climate of the islands may increase invasion threats to both terrestrial and marine habitats. 8.1 Introduction South Africa's southernmost territory, the Prince Edward Islands (PEIs), consists of two islands: the larger Marion (~270 km 2), and the smaller Prince Edward (~45 km 2) Islands (Fig. 8.1a). The islands lie approximately 2000 km southeast of Cape Town,

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Mouse predation affects breeding success of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Cited by 20 publications

References 35 publications

Systematic prey preference by introduced mice exhausts the ecosystem on Antipodes Island

Systematic prey preference by introduced mice exhausts the ecosystem on Antipodes Island

Clustered or dispersed: testing the effect of sampling strategy to census burrow-nesting petrels with varied distributions at sub-Antarctic Marion Island

Biological Invasions in South Africa’s Offshore Sub-Antarctic Territories

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