Rare footage released of endangered seabird on Mauna Loa

A fledgling band-rumped storm petrel, or akeake, emerged from its burrow high up the slopes of Mauna Loa about a month before the eruption began Nov. 27.

It was all caught on camera for the first time, according to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, which released the footage Tuesday.

The endangered seabird’s burrow is the first confirmed akeake nest identified in HVNP, according to park officials, who became aware of it several months ago thanks to the work of a detection dog named Slater.

After Slater sniffed out the burrow in September, biologist Charlotte Forbes Perry observed the chick inside its burrow.

Forbes Perry, a biologist with the University of Hawaii Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, and her team hold a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study seabirds at the national park.

Biologists have known of the presence of akeake on Mauna Loa since the 1990s, Forbes Perry said in a news release.

In 2019, akeake burrow calls were recorded during acoustic monitoring, which indicated they were nesting, the release said. However, they are extremely difficult for humans to locate due to the lack of visual signs, such as guano, at their nest sites.

Not so for Slater, a conservation detection dog who was able to sniff out the akeake nest along with three Hawaiian petrel nests over two days. Biologists installed wildlife cameras to monitor the burrows, which resulted in the first documented footage of the fluffy akeake fledgling.

Akeake, or Oceanodroma castro, is the smallest and rarest seabird that breeds in Hawaii, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife. Only a single egg is laid per season.

Adults are primarily blackish-brown with a sharply defined, narrow white band across their rump — thus, its name. They are known to nest in burrows in a variety of remote, high-elevation, inland habitats but spend most of their lives at sea.

The global population is estimated at about 150,000, with about 240 pairs known in Hawaii, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

The population is in decline due to threats including habitat loss and non-native predators such as barn owls, cats and mongooses.

Like other seabirds, akeake fly to their breeding sites at night to avoid attracting predators and are also susceptible to disorientation from artificial lights.

At HVNP, officials said the burrows of seabirds such as the akeake and Hawaiian petrels, or uau, are protected by a 644-acre, cat-proof fence.

They are not threatened by the current eruption of Mauna Loa.

Detection dog Slater and his handler, Michelle Reynolds, were also part of a team that discovered a new akeake burrow at the U.S. Army Garrison Pohakuloa Training Area in early September. Both the nests at Pohakuloa and HVNP are the only documented akeake nests in Hawaii, according to officials.

“We are ecstatic by these finds, and detector dogs are an invaluable resource to help locate these elusive birds,” said Forbes Perry.