Future ‘grim’ for brown booby, DoE warns
(CNS): Survey results of the 2022 nesting season for Cayman Brac’s brown booby colony are grim, the Department of Environment has warned after finding a staggering 70% of the eggs laid by the nesting pairs last year were lost. Of the 42 eggs identified during the season, only 13 fledged successfully. Many of the eggs were broken or missing prior to hatching and a large proportion of young chicks disappeared. As a result, a feral cat control programme will be starting soon on the Bluff around the Lighthouse Trail.
Without taking action to help protect these culturally important birds, they could disappear from the Brac altogether in just a few short years.
“The 2023 nesting season is underway and to give these birds the best chance at a successful breeding season the National Conservation Council has engaged the Departments of Environment and Agriculture to help manage the threat of feral cats and rodents known to hunt in brown booby nesting areas,” the DoE stated.
“In the coming weeks, members of the Terrestrial Resources Unit from the Department of Environment will begin feral cat control in the remote, eastern-most sections of the Brac Bluff around the Lighthouse Trail. The control measures, which consist of a humane trap and euthanasia programme administered by the Department of Agriculture, will only be active in the remote, eastern tip of the island where the greatest concentration of booby nests are located.”
Microchipped cats that are trapped will be returned to identifiable owners, though the unit does not expect to find any pets in this remote area and traps will not be set in any other parts of the island at this point. Rodent control will happen in the same area, including the use of mechanical snap-traps contained in secure bait stations to limit access by any non-target species. There are no plans to use rat poison.
The need for such a cull is not unique to Cayman Brac. Around the world, invasive species like cats, rats and dogs are responsible for the decimation of nesting seabird populations. “Feral cats have been recorded on Cayman Brac actively hunting booby parents and chicks, making the impact on our brown boobies another reason why cats are identified as one of the leading causes of bird mortality around the world,” the DoE said.
Pet owners and visitors to the area are asked to keep their dogs on a leash and give the boobies at least 50 inches of space to ensure they are not stressed. “By working together, we might give our brown boobies the relief they need to breed stress-free and begin to recover their colony,” officials added.
Learn more about threatened nesting seabirds in the Cayman Islands here.
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Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature
Cat culling to restore The Balance is certainly not going to ensure the Booby’s survival. The young Boobies and eggs have several natural predators in the Sister Islands. Cull the cats, and rats can thrive. Cull the rats, and snakes can thrive. Cull the cats, rats, and snakes, and the owls no longer have a handy source of rat meals and probably will consider Booby chicks a very nice source for midnight snacks. The natural habitats of owls is dwindling in the western part of Cayman Brac due to humans developing their human environment, so the owls head to the less densely populated eastern Bluff, which just happens to be where the boobies are. This could pose an unintended consequence for the Boobies.
Cull the cats, rats, snakes, and owls, and eventually humans will expand development and invade the Booby Birds’s space and it is game over.
Gina and the DOE are always demanding a study to be done if we the citizens want to do anything that she and the DOE deem might potentially impact the environment. And this is just about everything. The exception to this is wholesale destruction of trees and the beach ridge on Cayman Brac. That can be done at will with no consequences as evidenced by the many developments on Cayman Brac that have done so.
Has the DOE done a study to determine the actual impact that the cat population has on the Booby population? I asked one DOE person if anyone in the department knows what percentage of booby bird deaths on Cayman Brac result from cat predation. They said no one has any idea. Have they determined the total population of Boobies on Cayman Brac? Have they determined what the minimum viable population for Boobies is for each the two Sister Islands?
Have the DOE brainiacs gathered any statistics at all for the Sister Islands that support the cat culling?
Have the brainards determined that culling cats and rats will not result in unintended consequences for the Boobies? If they have no credible statistics for the Brac and Little Cayman Boobies, then what the hell are they doing? Are they taking a rational approach? Or just reacting hysterically?
The rationale for taking a thoughtful, holistic approach is nicely expressed here: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-dont-blame-cats-wildlife-shaky.html#:~:text=It%20is%20true%20that%20like,small%20islands%20and%20remote%20deserts.
Species invade and thrive, other species depart the scene, even go extinct. This, dear readers is: a. how evolution works; b. how God’s model of the Earth has operated since creation; c. how Mother Nature manages things. (Pick one or more).
While on the subject of invasive species and culling to maintain The Balance:
The most destructive, environmentally damaging, and invasive of all species on Earth is Homo Sapiens, humans. Humans are so destructive that we are the only species that came up with a way to make themselves extinct along with a significant amount of life on Earth. If nuclear weapons don’t get ya, global warming will. Who knows? Perhaps global warming is not caused by mankind after all. Perhaps it is Mother Nature’s Way to eventually cull a horridly destructive species and restore The Balance.
It didn’t help that the vet board on Grand denied the Brac a resident vet and kept a service from Brackers that they have access to themselves.
@9:47:
Did you check out the current situation on Cayman Brac? It is my understanding that the CIG approved the application of the vet Brac resident to practice here now.
Based on research it is known wild birds have a hatch and fledgling survival rate of 30-78% the numbers are right on target based of nature. Cat’s are not known to eat eggs, but Braccas are known to drink Bobby punch, the bird’s in Cayman Brac nest on the side of the bluff again not known to be a hunting territory for the cats. killing all the cats in turn leave lots of rats to feast on eggs and fledgling. this is one disgusting evil plot to kill cats on all the Islands. All involved should be fired and not allowed to hold government positions.
Qanon loon alert.
Future is grim for Cayman.
Even more grim for Caymanians.
DOA has their head in the sand by banning neuter and release in Grand Cayman!
I don’t want the 4 feral cats outside my house, but charities (since August 2022!!) were too overwhelmed to trap and fix.
DOE & DOA are ignoring a growing problem with 88 cats at the Humane Society now…
DOE aren’t ignoring the problem. They are trying to cull the feral cats. It’s charities like the HS and feline friends that keep challenging them in court. If you want to fix the problem deal with these charities.
revoke their charitable status and use the funds to help humans.
Anyone can now trap-and-remove so get those cats gone.
Trap and fix, as you call it, won’t prevent 4 cats in your yard as long as Care, etc keep releasing back to the wild.
Cull the cats and ban cats from Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. The indigenous wildlife is far more vital to save. Spaying and neutering does not solve the problem as the cats still kill the birds!
There shouldn’t be ANY loose domesticated animals anywhere in the Cayman Islands. There is an Animals Law, but no understanding on who is supposed to enforce it (what else is new). eg. Who is the Chief Animal Control Officer? Does anyone know?
So ban residents from having pets in the Sister Islands but not in Grand? Does Grand Cayman not have birds?
Hardly surprising given the price of eggs in the supermarket.
Some weeks ago I called DoA about a feral cat problem in my area. I was told that the law does not allow the destruction of feral cats: dogs, yes; cats, no. Wow!
The officer said that DoA was awaiting the law to be amended.
So I guess the law has now been changed to allow them to conduct this proposed operation, or are the laws in Cayman Brac different?
I’ll check back on Monday and hear what they say about my neighbourhood pests.
They’re a nightmare round my yard, wild Fowl too. They all should be culled if they can’t be properly housed and cared for.
Its an Ex-Pat bird so no one cares.
this is really a sad case..
DoE collect turtle eggs and put them in incubators, why can’t they do the same with bird eggs? Catch and contain all the animals roaming outside in contravention of the Animals Law. Animals have to be on leashes in the Cayman Islands. $1000 fine.
The DOE does not put turtle eggs in incubators. They leave them to hatch naturally. Not sure where you are getting this information from.
Interesting. How then does the Turtle Abattoir gets their eggs from DoE? Does someone at the DoE lay them?
9:22 I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. Initially, when the turtle farm was set up they got them from the wild but this was decades ago. They raised turtles to breeding size; now all the turtles in the farm come from the farm breeders. The DOE takes no wild turtles or their eggs. I’ve volunteered with them for many years so I know this for a fact. Please don’t spread untruths.
For years after the Michelle relocation, the turtles weren’t mating and laying as hoped at the new artificial beach at the Turtle Farm, and their own tour guides were pointing to eggs in their glass-partitioned incubation room that they said were dug-up and sourced by DoE from our natural beaches.
Then they lied.
If thats what they were saying.
Turtles lay their eggs, cover them up and leave. Birds not so much.
You somehow missed that 70% of annual regeneration are lost to predation. Clearly, the momma birds can’t do it on their own without intervention. So, 3 choices: we must (a) kill the menace problem cats, or (b) protect the real eggs (subbing in a fake egg) by relocating them away from predation in an incubator, or (c) continue to do nothing and forfeit one of the best reasons for tourists to go to the Sister Islands.
There are so many problems with this.
One, who is going to teach the baby birds how to bird? Turtles don’t have any care/teaching period. Seabirds do, and nothing replaces the parent as well as the parent in these cases. Two, what was your plan once the substitute eggs don’t hatch? Replace them with toys or robots?! Lol.
Anyway, option a of tackling the route problem is going on, so it’s all moot.
Do the newborn turtles fly away?