Moving species to save them – once considered taboo – is quickly gaining traction as climate change upends habitats.
Wildlife workers relocate Tristram’s storm petrels on Hawaii’s Tern Island, on March 29, 2022. Scientists are making a dramatic effort to save the birds in Hawaii by moving them to an island they had never inhabited before. Photo: L. Young/Pacific Rim Conservation/AP
But for the Tristram’s storm petrels on northeastern Hawaii’s Tern Island, which is just 6ft above sea level, the relocation of about 40 chicks to artificial burrows more than 500 miles away on Oahu could offer new hope. A pending change to the US Endangered Species Act by the Biden administration would make it easier to relocate some of the most imperiled species to places where they’ve not previously been recorded.
The proposal, which federal officials expect to finalise in June, reflects a “fundamental shift in the way we think of species protection and conservation”, said University of Notre Dame biologist Jason McLachlan. To save storm petrels, VanderWerf said, scientists need to act before populations have crashed. “In 30 years, these birds will certainly be rare, if we don’t do something about it,” he said.
“We view experimental population establishment outside of their historical ranges as a potential tool for their management and conservation.” The hope is that the Guam kingfisher, also known locally as sihek, will eventually be returned to their native island, if the tree snake is controlled, said Erica Royer, a bird expert at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, DC.
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