Seychelles Magpie Robin News 3: Denis Island breathes new life into the Conservation of the Seychelles Magpie Robin.

The first, of hopefully many, Magpie Robin chicks has hatched on Denis Island whilst two other eggs are under incubation!!! This is the great news coming from Catherina on Denis. I went to Denis over the weekend and caught up on the news and developments. In addition there are another two pairs of birds that are currently nest building and a further two birds that are showing signs of forming a breeding pair. This is all very encouraging news and is the culmination of years of work on the part of many partners.

For many years (1960s to mid-1990s) the Seychelles Magpie Robin (SMR) was confined to Fregate Island with a precariously low population – once estimated to be as few as 12!!! In 1981 well-known local conservationist, Victorin Laboudallon, was part of the team, along with a consultant from the New Zealand wildlife service that went to Fregate to eradicate cats on the island that were then threatening this last population of SMRs.
In the late 1980s Dr Jan Komdeur, working at that time for the International Council for Bird Preservation (now called BirdLife International) began work on understanding the ecological needs of the robins on Fregate and investigating scope for supplementary feeding to improve their breeding success etc…

In the following years a recovery programme was initiated by BirdLife International and birds were transferred to and populations established on the small islands of Cousin and Cousine in the mid-1990s. In 1998 the management of the recovery plan was localised and taken over by Nature Seychelles (called at that time BirdLife Seychelles). A population was also established and after some initial difficulties subsequently stabilised on Aride Island. These islands however offered relatively small areas of habitat and even with ongoing vegetation rehabilitation, particularly on Fregate, the scope for ongoing population growth was limited.

The next phase in the SMR conservation story came with a programme of rat and cat eradications on private islands. Fregate Island had unfortunately been invaded by rats in 1998 and they were successfully eradicated in 2000, Denis Island eradicated cats in 2000 and rats in 2002. The removal of alien predators from Denis coupled with a habitat rehabilitation programme in partnership with Nature Seychelles made Denis the next priority island for the introduction of the SMR.

On the 25th June this year, 20 SMRs (16 from Fregate and 4 from Cousin) were transferred to Denis (see post dated 04/07/08). The birds were released from their aviaries in a staggered process from the 13th to the 18th July (see post dated 20/07/08). Several birds soon paired off, established territories and commenced nest building (see posts dated: 30/07, 04/08 & 15/08/08). Catherina noted the first egg in territory T2 (see map 4) on the 4th of August and it is believed to have hatched on the 23rd. She noted an egg in the nest of territory T1 on the 16th (likely laid a day or 2 before that). Finally she observed an egg in the nest in T3 on the 16th with egg having been laid in the preceding 2 or 3 days. Preparations are also underway in territories T4 and T5 with nests under construction and the pair in T5 observed mating twice.

For Denis Island and its owners this is the latest landmark on a restoration process they commenced in 1998 with the initial alien predator surveys. A lot of resources have been and continue to be invested in this undertaking to the benefit of the Seychelles Magpie Robin and conservation in Seychelles in general. Populations of Seychelles Warbler and Fody, introduced in 2004, and are doing well on the island whilst sea bird colonies are also showing signs of recovery (see posts dated: 18/08 & 24/08/08).

Of course the first chick still has a long way to go before it is considered an independent adult and faces various risks along that path – but its hatching and the progress in four other territories really is a fantastic start for the Denis introduction and literally breathes new life into the conservation of the Seychelles Magpie Robin a species still classified as endangered under World Conservation Union (IUCN) criteria..

Check back regularly for updates on the population’s progress.