Seabird Monitoring on Lehua

Project Goal
Lehua Island, located just north of Ni’ihou Island in Hawaii, is home to over 50,000 seabirds from 8 species. Kauai Endangered Seabird Recovery Project (KESRP) conducts passive acoustic surveys to document patterns of vocal activity by Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Ardenna pacifica), Bulwer’s Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii), Band-rumped Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma castro) and other focal species at breeding sites on nightly and seasonal scales and compare calling rates among survey sites and through time as an index of relative abundance. A rat eradication project, led by Island Conservation, was declared a success in April of 2021 and acoustic monitoring has been an important tool for monitoring ecosytem recovery on this remote island.

Conservation Metrics
Collaborated on the design and implementation of an automated acoustic survey strategy that has allowed KESRP to use measures of acoustic abundance to track population trends over time and quantify the impacts of rat eradication efforts. Our work with KESRP and other project partners over the last 10+ years has demonstrated the utility of passive acoustic monitoring to understand diel, seasonal, and annual patterns and trends in vocal activity and colony attendance.