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Parks Canada
National parks
Gwaii Haanas
Nature and science
Conservation
Ecosystem restoration
SG̲in X̲aana Sdiihltl’lx̲a: Night Birds Returning
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Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, and Haida Heritage Site
Photo gallery 1
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Gwaii Haanas is undertaking a multi-year Action on the Ground project to restore ecologically and culturally significant seabird colonies on remote islands like Murchison and Faraday.
© Parks Canada / Andrew Wright
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These islands support a significant proportion of the world’s population of Ancient Murrelets, a Species-at-Risk in Canada.
© Parks Canada / C. Bergman
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The birds breed in underground burrows in the forest and Canadian scientists have gone to great lengths to learn about their habits.
© Parks Canada / C. Bergman
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Cassin’s Auklets (shown here) along with Fork-tailed and Leech’s storm petrels, also breed on the islands each spring.
© Parcs Canada / C. Bergman
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In Gwaii Haanas, introduced rats have had serious detrimental effects on seabird populations as well as those of native small native mammals like dusky shrew (show here) and Keen’s deer mice.
© Parks Canada / C. Bergman
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Gwaii Haanas has been monitoring seabirds and other wildlife including invasive species on rat-infested islands and rat free islands with specialized acoustic recording units (shown here) and wildlife cameras.
© Parks Canada
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Several different species of sea birds are captured by wildlife cameras on rat-free islands.
© Parks Canada
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In 2013, an aerial eradication took place on Murchison and Faraday Islands with the goal of removing all rats from these islands.
© Chris Gill, Coastal Conservation
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To help monitor the success of their work, Parks Canada staff radio collared rats on the island.
© Parks Canada
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The rats were tracked with telemetry equipment. After the eradication was complete all radio-collared rats had died. Monitoring will continue for at least two years to ensure the success of the work.
© Gregg Howald, Island Conservation
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Parks Canada and the Haida Nation worked in partnership with Island Conservation, Coastal Conservation, and other international experts who have been involved in successful eradications worldwide.
© Chris Gill, Coastal Conservation
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Breeding success of shorebirds like these Black Oyster Catchers will also improve as a result of rat eradication.
© Parks Canada
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Date modified :
2017-04-04