Peruvian Diving Petrel no longer Endangered

Peruvian Diving Petrel has been downlisted from Endangered to Near Threatened, after targeted conservation has boosted the population of the seabird.

The species used to have a large population of some 100,000 breeding pairs on offshore islands along the coasts of Peru and Chile. However, by the 1980s numbers had dwindled to a mere 1,000 pairs, its nesting sites invaded by guano miners, hunters and introduced predatory rats and dogs.

The Chilean population of Peruvian Diving Petrel has shown signs of recovery (Nigel Forrow).

Targeted conservation work – including the removal of invasive species on the 13 islands that hold the diving petrel – has boosted the population, though. Starting in 2013, the Chilean National Forestry Corporation, in collaboration with Island Conservation, removed vertebrate pests from the Choros and Chañaral Islands – two key historic sites – to protect the diving petrel and other threatened species.

Five years later, biologists returned to Choros and documented the breeding area had doubled in size with more than three times as many subcolonies compared to when invasive Rabbits were present. The IUCN's 2020 evaluation of the Peruvian Diving Petrel noted this rapid population recovery as part of the justification for downlisting the species from Endangered to Near Threatened. 

Coral Wolf, Conservation Program Manager at Island Conservation, who led the five-year monitoring trip, said: "Restoration of Choros was expected to increase the Peruvian Diving Petrel population, but the extent to which they would recover was unknowable. We are thrilled to see that by eliminating resource competition with invasive Rabbits, the population has expanded, supporting the overall resilience of this species to the impacts of climate change scenarios and other threats."