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c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

Writes The Inquirer [inquirer.net]

Unseen in PH for years, masked boobies start family in Tubbataha

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan, Philippines — Believed to have disappeared in the Philippines for almost 20 years, a seabird family of the masked booby (Sula dactylatra) species has been reportedly spotted on an islet at the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park and World Heritage Site in Palawan province.

“We have been on a roller-­coaster ride of joy and despair as we watched our masked boobies build a family on Bird Islet,” the Tubbataha Management Office (TMO), which oversees the marine park, said in a statement on Monday.

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The seabirds were first observed in “large colony” on Bird Islet by naturalist Dean Worcester in 1911, but their number significantly declined 70 years later, or in 1981 when ornithologist Robert Kennedy found only about 150 adults at the world-­renowned park, and to only about 30 recorded in 1989.

In 1995, a lone seabird was photographed on Bird Islet and the species was declared completely gone in the Philippines a year later.

After almost 20 years, a lone masked booby was seen nesting on Bird Islet in May 2016. Three years later, marine park officials reportedly saw another seabird at the same spot.
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The seabird’s sexual maturity is reached in three to five years, where breeding and courtship would usually begin. Pairs form a monogamous relationship over multiple breeding seasons.

“One of the peculiarities in nature is that even when these birds laid two eggs, only one chick will be raised as the younger or weaker one is kicked out of the nest to die. This focuses the energy of the parents on one offspring, increasing the likelihood of survival,” Angelique Songco, park superintendent, wrote in a previous East Asian-Australian Flyway report.

...

“These last few years, this masked booby couple has kept us in alternating strings of joy and despair, hope and discouragement, resignation and expectation. Are they home for good?” Songco said.

Conservation efforts

Last July, the TMO stepped up its efforts to save the seabirds at the country’s prime protected marine park after the Bird and South islets became “virtually flat” after losing their trees and shrubs due to guano overfertilization and past droughts.

The islets are also shelters to the black noddy (Anous minutus worcesteri), an internationally protected species, and red-footed booby (Sula sula).

Original Submission