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Falklands Conservation |
Special Update
Once a Very Common Bird
Conflict with Sheep Farming leads to Decline
Investigation on Status Initiated
The Survey - 55 Islands Visited
Breeding Population of 500 Pairs
Information Collected on Prey, Behaviour and Nests
How can we help Johnny Rooks survive?
Johnny Rooks rely on the Falklands for their Future
In 1994 BirdLife International published The World List of Threatened Birds and gave the Johnny Rook Near-threatened status due to its restricted geographic distribution and small population. Falklands Conservation has recently concluded a two year survey on the status of this unusual bird. Robin Woods and Jeremy Smith report on the results.
Tourists, including many birders, are amazed when they first encounter a Johnny Rook. They admire the handsome markings of the adults, the impudence of the immatures, their agility on the ground and in the air. As a large bird of prey, it is a powerful predator yet it is ridiculously tame and very vulnerable to persecution.
Special Update - New Law Protects Johnny Rook
As from 1st November the new Conservation of Wildlife and Nature Ordinance 1999 came into effect and will offer greater protection to the Johnny Rook. Shooting a Johnny Rook now can result in a fine of £3000, even if it is causing damage to livestock or property. The only way a rogue bird can be killed is if it is a problem in a specific area and following an application to the Government for a licence. This can only be granted for 2 years and must then be reviewed. The bird of prey is one of the rarest birds in the world. Falklands Conservation welcomes this first step in protecting it and ensuring its survival in the Falklands, which could hold up to 75% of the world's population of this fascinating and unique bird.
The Johnny Rook, or Striated Caracara Phalcoboenus australis, has been recognised as a very unusual bird of prey in the Falklands for two centuries. Charles Darwin visited Port Louis, East Falkland, in autumn 1833 and 1834. He was one of the first to report on the Johnny Rook's behaviour and wrote that it was 'exceedingly numerous', 'constantly haunted the neighbourhood of houses to pick up all kinds of offal', was 'extraordinarily tame and fearless' and 'very mischievous and inquisitive, quarrelsome and passionate'. Sheep were introduced and farming developed from about 1850 on East Falkland and 1867 on West Falkland. From February 1858 to December 1860, Captain Abbott of the Falkland Islands Detachment of Royal Marines travelled widely on East Falkland. His account (Woods & Woods 1997) of the Johnny Rook began with the statement, 'This is one of the commonest birds in East Falkland.' Abbott recorded that he visited North Camp (East Falkland) in December 1860 and, 'found at least 15 nests along the cliffs'.
Conflict with Sheep Farming leads to Decline
Less than 50 years later, in 1908, this intriguing bird was classified as a pest of sheep farming when it was included in an Ordinance for the Destruction of Birds of Prey. The FI Government agreed to pay bounties for Johnny Rooks killed and by 1910, Arthur Cobb, the Bleaker Island farm manager, wrote that it had decreased in numbers. In 1922, the Government Naturalist, James Erik Hamilton, wrote to FI Government that its numbers on East and West Falkland were very low because it had been subjected to 'a remorseless process of extermination' (Woods & Woods 1997). Hamilton pointed out to the FIG that ceasing the payment of bounties 'would remove from Government the liability to reproach from scientists that encouragement was given to the extermination of one of the ornaments of the local avifauna'. Hamilton also believed that 'the persistent plentifulness of the Upland Goose could be attributed at least in part to the diminution of the Johnny Rook and the senseless killing of hawks'.
Bounty payments ceased over 70 years ago, but the relationship between Johnny Rooks and sheep farming has remained controversial and large numbers were still being killed on the outer Jason Islands during the annual sheep-shearing visits in the 1960s.
Investigation on Status Initiated
There is now much international concern about bird species that are becoming rare or endangered through human activities. In November 1995, almost three-quarters of a century after Hamilton's warnings, the Islands' Legislative Council discussed the relationship between Johnny Rooks and sheep farming. It was agreed that Falklands Conservation should be asked to investigate the Islands' Striated Caracara population.
The Survey - 55 Islands Visited
Fieldwork started in the 1997-8 season with a team of three to four surveyors visiting about 30 islands to the west and northwest of West Falkland during five weeks in October and November 1997. Visits were made to the Bense Islands in January 1998. During three weeks from late October 1998, two surveyors landed on more than 20 islands, including Bird Island, the Ten Shilling Bay Islands, the Arch Islands and the Sea Lion Islands group. Altogether, 55 islands were surveyed, where populations of Johnny Rooks were known (or expected) to breed.
Breeding Population of 500 Pairs
In these two seasons, the nesting sites of almost 300 breeding pairs have been plotted on maps and located by using a Global Positioning System instrument while 70 more probable territories were also mapped. These figures and data from other sources for islands which were not visited due to lack of time or finances, suggest that the breeding population in the Falklands is probably no larger than about 500 pairs.
Information Collected on Prey, Behaviour and Nests
Detailed information on nest sites, nest materials and the behaviour of the pairs was collected and notes were taken on prey species. It was fascinating to observe behaviour at several sites where three adults each appeared to have an equal interest in the nest. At Bird Island, south of Port Stephens, a high density of breeding pairs was found and their main prey appeared to be Thin-billed Prions Pachyptila belcheri, nesting in thousands in burrows excavated in the soft peat below very dense Tussac. The detailed records made during the 1997-98 survey will be available to surveyors wishing to reassess the population in future.
How can we help Johnny Rooks survive?
This survey has shown that the Falkland population of about 500 pairs is now concentrated on remote, uninhabited islands when breeding. The main prey species are colonial seabirds. Non-breeding immatures tend to flock in autumn at settlements, particularly those at West Falkland, where they scavenge and take geese. Weak or sickly sheep and lambs are also inevitably attractive prey.
The survey methods developed and the data collected during the last two summer seasons will provide the basis for a programme of long term monitoring of the species. Such a programme is considered essential if the Islands are to fulfil their responsibility of ensuring the continued survival of species within the Islands (and very likely globally). In addition, a monitoring programme should include, or be supported by, research to further increase knowledge of the Johnny Rook's ecology and investigate its interactions with agriculture. The latter is of particular importance as continued persecution by landowners is apparantly one of the most serious threats to its long-term survival. Raising public awareness of the issues surrounding the Johnny Rook would also help considerably in promoting initiatives to protect the species in the future.
Johnny Rooks rely on the Falklands for their Future
Taking into account information from the extreme southern regions of Chile and Argentina, it is likely that the Falkland Islands contain the great majority of the world population. The human inhabitants of the Falklands therefore have an international responsibility to conserve this extremely unusual bird of prey.
Acknowledgements
This Survey would have been impossible without the local knowledge, seamanship and great support given by Michael and Jeanette Clarke, owners of the auxiliary ketch Penelope. Falklands Conservation is equally appreciative of the access allowed by landowners or their agents to privately owned islands.
Particular thanks are also due to the intrepid team of surveyors: Ann Prior, Jonathan Meiburg, Falkland Island Trustee Michael Morrison and UK Trustee Robin Woods (who also compiled the Survey data and fieldwork report).
References
Collar, N.J., Crosby, M.J. & Stattersfield, A.J. (1994) Birds to Watch 2, The World List of Threatened Birds. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International.
Woods, R.W. & Smith, J. (1999) Survey of the distribution and abundance of the Striated Caracara (Johnny Rook) Phalcoboenus australis within the Falklands, 1997-1998; Report to Falklands Islands Government.
Woods, R.W. & Woods, A. (1997) Atlas of Breeding Birds of the Falkland Islands. Oswestry, Anthony Nelson.
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Patron: HRH The Duke of York CVO ADC Member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature | BirdLife International Representative |