Page 45 - BBC Wildlife - August 2017 UK

RUTLAND SPECIAL

Right: this small
Rapashearwater ISLAND
may be declared
afull species. UNIQUENESS
Left: red-billed
tropicbird is For a relatively small
amongRapa’s
many seabirds. island, Rapa has a surfeit
Below: the of endemic flora and
island’sendemic fauna, including three
fruit dove. birds, 61 molluscs, 67
Bottom: Rapa’s weevil species and
craggy coasts subspecies and 31
are ideal seabird per cent of its plants.
nesting habitat. Isolation is the key driving
force. When castaways
blown here by the wind
or carried by strong
currents are pregnant,
or even a breeding pair,
evolution has a foot in
the door. Cut off from
original populations,
the colonists evolve
into unique species. A
second process known
as adaptive radiation
also plays an essential
role, explains Adam
Algar, a biogeography
expert at the University
of Nottingham. “With
few competitors or
predators, a species is free
to take advantage of the
resources in its new home,
leading to the formation
of unique species found
nowhere else.”

to cling on,” says Steve. Now “The management of ‘weeds’
he and other conservationists such as strawberryguava and
plan to reinvigorate these replanting of native forest
safe havens to benefit not species will create habitat
just the birds but threatened better suited for seabirds to
land snails, insects and plants nest in,” Steve explains. “It
too. “By removinggoats from will also provide much-
the remaining islets, we will needed fruit and flowers
provide a foundation for forest forthe fruit doves.”
species to recover and stem Local legends once
the erosion that affects ground spoke of clouds of birds
nesting seabirds,” he says. that couldblock outthe
Thesheerremoteness of sun, and folksongs are
Rapa, its rainy climate and rich with references to
steep terrain pose serious and Rapa’s unique avifauna.
costly challenges, but Steve BirdLife International
says the project will investigate intends to work closely
aerial solutions and emerging with the local community Many Rapa plants
technologies – for example, to restore not just the and invertebrates Rapamages: FredJacq;stamp: Nauru Post; conservationists: ACNR/Birdlife in Rwanda
employing drones for surveys island’s wildlife but its culturalural occur nowhere else.
and working with other rat- heritage, too. It may be far-flung
eradication projects in theregion andlittle-known, but withhelp
that drop bait from helicopters. from Birdfair visitors, this ELLA DAVIES writes
Onthe ground,itwill take Pacific paradise will at last about nature and the
hard graft to get the job done. get the helpit deserves. environment.

August 2017 BBC Wildlife 45