Critically endangered Floreana mockingbird to be reintroduced to Floreana

Floreana mockingbird. Credit Paquita Hoeck

November 2009. The Galapagos Conservation Trust (GCT), with its partner on Galapagos, The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF), is launching a £60,000 campaign to help save the bird that inspired Darwin's theory of evolution from extinction and reintroduce it to its original island home.

DNA from museum birds to point the way
Geneticists have extracted DNA from two birds collected by Darwin himslef in 1835. By comparing this with DNA from the only living populations on two small islands, the scientists found some genetic clues that they hope will help them to conserve the birds. The scientists have suggested that birds from both islets should be used to reintroduce a single, mixed population to Floreana.

Floreana mockingbirds became extinct on Floreana soon after Darwin's visit, probably due to cats and rats that escaped from the Beagle.

Added to Crtically endangered list 
The Floreana mockingbird - now one of the world's rarest birds, hes been placed on the Red List of critically endangered birds by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - was common when Charles Darwin collected specimens on Floreana during the voyage of HMS Beagle in 1835.

Just over 30 years later, the birds were already extinct on Floreana and confined to the neighbouring two small islets of Gardner-por-Floreana and Champion, and by 2007 that population had dwindled to roughly 200 birds. Speaking about the appeal GCT's President Andrew Marr pointed out this is "about as close to extinction as you can get".

Numbers doubled
Thanks to some high rainfall however, numbers have doubled, and there are now more birds than these small satellite islands can support. This provides a real opportunity to reintroduce a small number of birds back on the island of Floreana and gather vital scientific data about their progress.

Restore the Floreana ecosystem
The trial reintroduction of some of these additional birds to Floreana is a crucial first step towards ensuring the species' survival. It is the first stage of an international survival plan drawn up at a workshop in Galapagos that spans five years and costs $2.2 million in total. It is also an important development within a wide-ranging, multi million pound project to restore Floreana's whole ecosystem, spanning the next 30 years.

GCT's campaign aims to have mockingbirds back on Floreana to celebrate the bicentenary of Darwin's birth. If the funds can be secured preparatory work could take place between January and March, with the reintroduction getting underway during April to June when food is more plentiful.

Key to evolution of the species
The mockingbird is of outstanding historical importance because the specimens Darwin obtained in the archipelago gave him the first vital clue to the possibility that species change, pointing him towards the theory of evolution.
'Although Darwin's finches previously received the credit for inspiring his radical thinking on the evolution of species through natural selection, actually this honour belongs to the mockingbird,' said GCT's Chief Executive, Toni Darton.

Rat control necessary
'In addition to raising funds for the trial reintroduction of mockingbirds to Floreana, we also need to continue to raise funds for the eradication and control on the island of many of the introduced species, such as rats, which may have contributed to their extinction in the 19th century. In the long term, survival depends on sufficient quality habitat is in place to support the species.'

The reintroduced birds will be closely monitored and will provide vital scientific data for a larger three-year captive breeding programme with aviaries on the islands of Santa Cruz and Floreana, to be managed by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in partnership with CDF and the Galapagos National Park. The hope is that this programme can also start next year.

'It is paramount that the bloodline of the most important species in science is preserved and the captive breeding programme provides that contingency,' said CDF's Director of Technical Assistance, Felipe Cruz, who will be leading the project in Galapagos.

'This bird is the single most important species in the history of science. Its long-term future cannot rely on preserving two tiny and diminishing existing populations,' said Charles Darwin's great-great grandson, Randal Keynes, who is championing the appeal.

'It will be thrilling if the birds that so shaped his scientific thinking are returned to Floreana during the bicentenary year of my great-great grandfather's birth.'

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