Endangered
Henderson Petrel
Pterodroma atrata
Henderson Petrel is a tubenose seabird in the family Procellariidae (order Procellariiformes) — Pterodroma atrata, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
It has a uniform grey-brown plumage. Mathews renamed it Henderson Petrel, since dark-plumage birds of this species were considered to be dark-morph Herald petrels.
Adults measure on average 37 cm.
Range and habitat
It is found in the Pitcairn Islands, and possibly in French Polynesia, though confusion over the taxon makes reports of this species in the Marquesas, Tuamotus, Australs and Gambiers uncertain. Breeding colonies formerly existed on Ducie Island, but were wiped out by invasive rats by 1922. It is now believed to nest uniquely on Henderson island, that was declared a World Heritage Site in 1988.
Its natural habitat is the moist subtropical scrub found on that island. Millions of pairs of Henderson petrel used to breed on the island several centuries ago.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Brooke calculated breeding pairs to be around 16,000 in 1991/2.
In crisis
The endangered habitat of this species was identified in 2007 as requiring urgent action to restore it. The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans), thought to have been introduced by local Polynesian traders, has came close to wiping out the existing colony, devouring 25,000 petrel chicks per annum. To save the species from imminent extinction, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, in a last-ditch £1.5 million project, mounted an attempt to achieve a massive rodent cull to exterminate the predator population on the island.
This attempt to re-establish a rat-free habitat took place in August, 2011. Even though there was some success in reducing the rat population, the cull was not complete and the RSPB decided to undertake further research before attempting another cull.
Henderson Petrel is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Henderson Petrel, Wikidata item Q1260668. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
