Major fires on the Portuguese island of Madeira have caused extensive damage to some 5,000 hectares of land, including native laurel forest and the only breeding site for the Endangered Zino’s Petrel – severely threatening the species’ breeding success.
Endemic to Madeira, Zino’s Petrel was considered extinct until as recently as the late 1960s, when a breeding colony was discovered at Curral das Freiras (Nun’s Valley) in the centre of the island, this area giving these seabirds the Portuguese name Freira. They build nests in small burrows above 1,600m in altitude, between Pico do Areeiro and Pico Ruivo – the exact area affected by recent fires.
Cátia Gouveia, co-ordinator in Madeira of the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA – BirdLife in Portugal), explains: “The situation is especially serious because the fire spread precisely through the nesting area of the Freira petrel. Many of the nests are in inaccessible areas, so we really can’t know for sure at present, but we expect that some, possibly many, of the young have died, either from burns, smoke inhalation or nest collapse. In this scenario, even if the adults have survived, this year’s reproductive success is seriously affected, since these birds only lay one egg per year.”
This is not the first time that fire…