This 5 August 2019 video says about itself:
Dolphin Mom Adopts a Calf From a Different Species | Nat Geo Wild
A bottlenose dolphin mother off the coast of French Polynesia was spotted caring for a melon-headed whale.
This 2014 video is called Clownfish and [Sea] Anemones.
From the University of Queensland in Australia:
Predators drive Nemo‘s relationship with an unlikely friend
November 28, 2018
Predators have been identified as the shaping force behind mutually beneficial relationships between species such as clownfish and anemones.
The finding results from a University of Queensland and Deakin University-led study.
UQ School of Biological Sciences researcher and Australian-American Fulbright Scholar Dr William Feeney said the research aimed to understand the origin of such relationships, known as interspecies mutualisms, which are extremely common in nature.
“Clownfish — like Nemo from Finding Nemo — and anemones are a great example of this type of relationship,” he said.
“Clownfish live in and around anemones, helping drive off the anemone‘s predators and providing it with food, while in exchange the anemone provides protection with its stinging tentacles.
“Clownfish have evolved to resist the stings of the anemone, so it ends up being a very beneficial relationship for both species.”
The researchers said the study helped explain how natural selection had shaped global patterns of biological diversity.
“We tested and confirmed a very basic and intuitive — but logistically difficult — idea in evolutionary ecology,” Dr Feeney said.
“In a nutshell, we were looking to find out whether external pressures, such as predators, can explain the repeated evolution of these kinds of mutually beneficial partnerships.
The research combined genetic analysis with field experiments in French Polynesia to build a better understanding of fish-anemone mutualism dynamics.
Deakin University Centre for Integrative Ecology Research Fellow Dr Rohan Brooker said the team found that fish-anemone mutualisms had evolved at least 55 times across 16 fish families over the past 60 million years.
“This is much more common that previously thought. Over a quarter of coral reef-associated fish families have at least one species that associates with anemones,” Dr Brooker said.
“Our results suggest that the risk of predation has selected these relationships, and that partnerships with anemones primarily benefit smaller fishes.
“Overall, this study suggests that predation can explain the independent evolution of cooperative behaviours between species, and that this evolutionary pattern could apply globally.
“If you can’t find Nemo, it might be a good idea to go rummaging through the tentacles of his anemone friends.”
The study is published in Ecology Letters.
This AFP photo shows demonstrators against a French nuclear bomb test on Mururoa island in French Polynesia, in september 1995.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
President of French Polynesia admits lies about nuclear testing
President Fritch of French Polynesia has acknowledged in the parliament in Tahiti that the population has been lied to for 30 years about the dangers of the nuclear tests that were held there. Between 1960 and 1996, France held 193 tests with atomic bombs in the overseas territory in the South Pacific.
The images of the mushroom cloud that rose above the Mururoa atoll were increasingly leading to international protests. In 2010, the French government released hundreds of millions of euros to compensate the residents of French Polynesia. The money was also destined for Algeria, where nuclear tests were also held.
“I can not be surprised that I have been called a liar for thirty years, we lied to the people that the nuclear tests were clean. We lied”, was the statement by President Edouard Fritch. Unknown is what brought Fritch to this confession.
On request, the United States news agency AP received no response from the French government to the statements by Fritch.
The whistleblower Bruno Barrillot, who died last year, revealed that thyroid cancer and leukemia occur excessively among the 280,000 inhabitants of French Polynesia.
President Hollande visited French Polynesia two years ago. He acknowledged on that occasion that the nuclear tests had a harmful effect on human health and the environment. But he also praised the contribution that French Polynesia made to the fact that France became an international nuclear power.
Three years earlier, French newspapers reported on the basis of official documents released that the nuclear tests were much more harmful than the authorities had admitted.
Tahiti, the most famous Polynesian island that is often depicted on the paintings of Paul Gauguin, was exposed to radioactive radiation 500 times as high as the maximum permitted level.
This video says about itself:
11 November 2017
Filming Sharks In Protected French Polynesian Waters – BBC Earth
The Blue Planet II team are filming in the protected waters of French Polynesia where shark species thrive. It’s an example of positive conservation measures in action and helps conserve the pristine reef habitat.
This video is about orange-fin clownfish, aka orange-fin anemonefish.
Ocellaris clownfish became famous by the film Finding Nemo.
However, this species, and its clownfish (or anemonefish) relatives are now threatened by global warming. Though the fish themselves can stand warmer ocean water, the sea anemones on which they depend cannot.
As shown by research about orange-fin anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysopterus) in Moorea, French Polynesia; from Nature:
Cascading effects of thermally-induced anemone bleaching on associated anemonefish hormonal stress response and reproduction
10 October 2017
Abstract
Organisms can behaviorally, physiologically, and morphologically adjust to environmental variation via integrative hormonal mechanisms, ultimately allowing animals to cope with environmental change. The stress response to environmental and social changes commonly promotes survival at the expense of reproduction. However, despite climate change impacts on population declines and diversity loss, few studies have attributed hormonal stress responses, or their regulatory effects, to climate change in the wild. Here, we report hormonal and fitness responses of individual wild fish to a recent large-scale sea warming event that caused widespread bleaching on coral reefs.
This 14-month monitoring study shows a strong correlation between anemone bleaching (zooxanthellae loss), anemonefish stress response, and reproductive hormones that decreased fecundity by 73%. These findings suggest that hormone stress responses play a crucial role in changes to population demography following climate change and plasticity in hormonal responsiveness may be a key mechanism enabling individual acclimation to climate change.
This 2015 video is called French Polynesia, Rangiroa Atoll, Bird Island.
From BirdLife:
2017 brings hope for Pacific birds
By Mike Britton, 31 Dec 2016
A new year always brings new hope – but 2017 is a big one for conservation in the Pacific. The last big leap forward in 2015 was the restoration of the islands of Acteon and Gambier in French Polynesia. In 2017 we are on the countdown for the next big step forward, the restoration of up to 18 islands of the Marquesas and at Rapa, again in French Polynesia. In January a team including BirdLife French Polynesian partner, SOP (Société d’Ornithologie de Polynésie) Manu, BirdLife Invasives Programme staff and Island Conservation will head to the Marquesas to begin the all-important step of assessing the current state of nature on the Islands, the technical issues associated with a restoration programme and continuing consultation with the local people. This work is being funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The Marquesas is one of the most important archipelagos for bird conservation in the world. It is home to 22 species of seabird including three globally threatened (Tahiti Petrel, Phoenix Petrel, Polynesian Storm-Petrel) and at least two globally threatened land birds (Marquesas Ground-Dove, Marquesas Monarch).
Restoring the nine satellite islets around Rapa, which is the eastern most island of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia, is the other half of this ambitious project. Financial support for the actual restoration has been secured and this will be another major step forward for nature in early 2018. These islands are home to an assemblage of seabirds unlike those found elsewhere in French Polynesia with eleven species, seven of which are petrels and shearwaters including an endemic form of the White-bellied storm petrel.
Towards the middle of 2017 a further attempt will be made to find the nesting sites of the elusive Beck’s Petrel. The 2016 expedition saw birds but was unable to catch any on the water to enable transmitters to be attached to allow them to be followed home. After a review of methodology the team is quietly confident they can succeed.
Another even more elusive bird is the Fiji Petrel which only nests on Gau Island in Fiji. Funds are being sought to allow a last ditch attempt to find the actual nesting site so that they can be protected from predators. This project was set back when one of the petrel locator dogs died a few months back and support is urgently needed if this critically endangered species is the be saved.
Two other critically endangered species in French Polynesia are the Fatu Hiva and Tahiti Monarch. The Fatu Hiva Monarch is not as well-known as its cousin, the Tahiti Monarch but is existence is even more threatened. It lives on Fatu Hiva, a remote island which is part of the Marquesas Archipelago, 1500 km from Tahiti. There are now just 25 adults left in the world and there are only 5 fertile pairs. Its survival is totally based on controlling predator threats to the birds and nests in the valleys where it lives. This bird depends almost totally on BirdLife Partner SOP Manu working with the local community. The current aim is to stablise the population but that does mean maintaining a long term predator control programme and habitat restoration. The future for the Tahiti Monarch seems a little more secure with the ideal being to establish a second population on an island with less predator danger! The European Union through its Best 2 programme is funding some of this work but it is a major challenge.
Empowering local people in all Pacific countries is the way to give nature a truly sustainable future. Last year extreme climatic evens like Cyclone Winston wreaked havoc with the local communities that work with BirdLife Partners. The aim is to help these communities rebuild and look for ways in which BirdLife and its partners can make a real difference in their lives and for the natural treasures for which they are the guardians
Across the Pacific BirdLife partners are fully engaged being the champions of nature. These are just some of the special projects. We have the solutions to stop extinctions and support local communities. We just need your support. Help with a donation.
Just two years after ambitious efforts by a team of international conservation organisations to rid French Polynesia’s Acteon & Gambier island groups of invasive mammals began, five of six targeted islands are now confirmed as predator-free—a ground-breaking one thousand hectares in total. Early signs already indicate that rare birds found nowhere else in the world (endemic) and other native plants and animals are recovering as the remote islands return to their former glory: here.
How we’re going to save the little paradise in the Pacific. The rare native wildlife of a remote island has retreated to a precarious existence on vertical cliffs. An urgent project supported by the 2017 Birdfair is leading the counter-attack against invasive species to save the “little planet” of Rapa Iti: here.
In 1800, French explorer Nicolas Baudin led an important scientific expedition to Tenerife, Mauritius, Australia, Timor and South Africa. He returned with hundreds of exotic bird species. PhD candidate Justin Jansen reconstructed this ‘catch’ in a weighty book and talked to us about the wonderful finds: here.
This video says about itself:
8 December 2014
Scuba diving / Marine life at Rapa, French Polynesia (Polynésie Française).
From BirdLife:
A small window of opportunity to save the unique birds of Rapa
By Steve Cranwell, 13 Oct 2016
Rapa and its surrounding islets is a very remote place. It is almost 1500 from Tahiti, the main island in French Polynesia. This isolation together with other geophysical characteristics has resulted in the evolution of a highly unique flora and fauna. As for other islands of the eastern Pacific, there are no mammals, instead these are replaced by birds and a diversity of specialised plants, invertebrates and terrestrial molluscs. For a relatively small island (c.40km2) endemism is extraordinarily high. 3 birds, 100 molluscs, 31% of all plants and 67 Miocalles (beetles) species or subspecies only occur on Rapa (Meyer et al 2014). The island is an IBA and a KBA.
However, almost all of this flora and fauna is considered highly threatened. Believed to have been colonised as late as the 1500’s Rapa was the last island to be permanently occupied (by Polynesians) and while tremendous damage has been wrought it is perhaps this relatively recent human history that has allowed this unique fauna and flora to cling on. Reasons for these declines is a story replicated throughout the Pacific; habitat loss associated with the clearance of land for agriculture, uncontrolled fires and the introduction of invasive alien species that continue to degrade habitats, compete for resources and prey directly on native wildlife.
Rapa and the nearby Marotiri islets are the most important islands for seabirds in the Australs with the highest diversity for the archipelago, but also the greatest level of (sub-specific) endemism. The Rapa shearwater (Puffinus newelli myrtae) has recently been recognised as more closely related to the Endangered Newell’s Shearwater (formerly Little Shearwater Puffinus assimilis) which occurs in Hawaii, Rapa constituting an extremely distant population. Fregetta grallaria titan the local form of White-bellied Storm Petrel is also considered to have sub-specific differences due to its larger body size however, it’s had very little taxonomic attention and distinct characteristics including vocalisations may warrant a separate species.
The Endangered White-throated Storm Petrel (Nesofretta fuliginosa) is also present and, while there’s been no thorough seabird survey of Rapa for over 25 years, numbers then were perilously low. With the consistent effects of introduced rodents and feral cats, goats, rabbits, cattle and horses these populations will have continued to decline.
The endemic and Endangered Rapa Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus huttoni) is restricted to an estimated 10 forest remnants approximating 10ha each. Again feral populations of domestic stock particularly goats and cattle threaten the little habitat that remains and introduced rodents and feral cats compound these impacts through predation. These consistent pressures combined with the results of the Meyer surveys conducted in the mid to late 2000’s (Meyer et al 2014) have highlighted the habitat degradation that has gone on including extinctions particularly of land snails and Rapa is very much an ‘IBA in danger’.
These biodiversity values, along with an assessment that restoration is possible, have raised Rapa to the top of the BirdLife restoration priorities, along with the islands of Marquesas Archipelago, also in French Polynesia. The programme is already underway thanks to a generous grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and planning is going ahead for the restoration operation to take place in 2018. But for this to happen Birdlife and its local partner SOP Manu must raise the near £100,000 necessary. So expect an ask coming out in the next 12 months.
While the cost of these restoration projects seems high, they provide the opportunity to save a unique place once and for all by removing the human introduced predators that have so decimated the nature of the Pacific. It is an opportunity we cannot fail to take up.
This video says about itself:
Rimatara Lorikeet and other birds on Atiu, Cook Islands
Rimatara Lorikeet – found only on Rimatara (Tubuai Islands), Kiribati, Atiu (Cook Islands)
Rarotongan Fruit-dove – found only on Rarotonga and Atiu (Cook Islands)
Rarotongan Flycatcher – found only on Rarotonga and Atiu (Cook Islands)
Chattering Kingfisher – found only in Society Islands and Cook IslandsVideos, photography and sound recording by Philip Griffin, April 2014 – Atiu, Cook Islands
From BirdLife:
Whisky protects lorikeets in French Polynesia
By Caroline Blanvillan, 27 May 2016
Invasive alien predators, especially rats, are the biggest threat to the birds of the Pacific region. Their spread across the Pacific has followed the movements of people, particularly Europeans, over the last two centuries. These invaders, as they “stepped off the boat”, heralded the beginning of the decline of many bird species.
Today, the Pacific region has 42 bird species that are classified as Critically Endangered, a quarter of the world’s total of such species.
BirdLife and its Pacific Partners have already cleared 40 islands of invasive species: the recovery of previously declining species on these islands has been spectacular. It is one of two actions that can ensure the continuing survival of species. The second, which is also the most cost effective option, is to prevent invaders from arriving in the first place.
In both cases, biosecurity is the essential component. Moreover, it makes good economic sense both for places that invasive predators not yet reached and those from which they have been removed. While this seems like simple common sense, in places where boats are vital to everyday life, an opportunistic rat will always try to catch a lift. It only takes a romantic couple or a pregnant individual and a new invasion will start.
So, prevention is not an easy task. Yet, in island communities, especially those sometimes hundreds of kilometres across the sea from the main resources, local people are the key defenders against predator invasions: they need every tool they can find to help them.
With the help of a generous grant from the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund, the Société d’Ornithologie de Polynésie (SOP Manu, BirdLife in French Polynesia) and the local associations on Ua Huka and Rimatara islands are putting in place biosecurity measures to protect these precious places. To help them, Dora and Whisky, two Jack Russell terriers bred and trained in New Zealand, were imported to try to detect any stowaway rats or other invaders.
Are they effective? In the eight months since Whisky has been on rat patrol on Rimatara, three rats have been detected, the most recent one already dead. This demonstrates the elevated risk of re-invasions. The potential is real and conservationists are not merely crying wolf!
Did Whisky miss any invaders? To test how good our ”super hero” really is, SOP Manu’s Caroline Blanvillain hid the skin of a rat in a cargo going out to Rimatara and waited to see if the protocol of inspection now in place on the Rimatara wharves was effective.
The result: one rat skin and one dead rat in another package were detected. This proves the importance of the biosecurity and the need for adequate resources to be available to local communities in order to continue this essential work. The cost is small when compared with the tens of thousands, possibly millions, of dollars that would be needed to remove the rats if they invaded successfully.
The islands of Rimatara and Ua Haka are last refuges of three of the most beautiful and rare lorikeets in the world; the Endangered Ultramarine Vini ultramarina and Rimatara Lorikeets V. kuhlii and the Vulnerable Blue Lorikeet V. peruviana. All three owe their survival to the fact that rats have not yet got to these isolated islands. Rimatara is also the potential site for the establishment of a second Tahiti Monarch Pomarea nigra population.
These are precious places. We owe a big thank you to the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund and the dedicated local communities and Site Support Groups for keeping them safe.
This video is called Phoenix petrel.
From BirdLife:
Marquesas Archipelago and Rapu in French Polynesia, the next big opportunity to stop extinctions
By Mike Britton, Wed, 30/12/2015 – 23:14
The contribution islands make to global biodiversity is out of proportion to their land area. Islands provide less than 5% of the Earth’s landmass yet provide habitat for 20% of all bird, reptile and plant species. They can be thought of collectively as biodiversity “hot spots”, containing some of the richest reservoirs of plants and animals on Earth.
Invasive predators, especially rats and cats, represent the greatest threat, but the impacts of habitat modification by herbivores and reduced fitness resulting from introduced micro-organisms are also significant. Three-quarters of all threatened bird species occurring on oceanic islands are at risk from introduced species. A total of 390 islands worldwide support populations of one or more Critically Endangered or Endangered species and one or more vertebrate invasive alien species that threatens them. That is the threat but it is also the opportunity. By removing rats and other predators from islands, permanent protection can be provided for the species that call them home – and as is being proven on islands where predators are already gone, recolonization by other threatened species can happen over time.
Big projects, big results. Having successfully completed the Acteon & Gambier project in 2015, the next big targets for BirdLife in the Pacific, and its partners SOP Manu and Island Conservation are up to 16 islands in the Marquesas Archipelago and at Rapu.
The Marquesas is one of the most important archipelagos for bird conservation in the world. It comprises six main volcanic islands, four smaller uninhabited islands and many islets. Situated 1,500 km from Tahiti the group is among the most remote in French Polynesia. The project will cover nine priority islands in a programme being developed that will take into account the technical challenges and most importantly getting landowner and political support. The restoration of these sites will provide the opportunity consider taking on predator eradication on the larger more complex islands like Fatu Hiva. The aim will be to secure predator free habitat for 22 species of seabird including three globally threatened (Tahiti Petrel, Phoenix Petrel, Polynesian Storm-Petrel) and at least two globally threatened land birds (Marquesas Ground-Dove, Marquesas Monarch).
Rapa is the eastern most island of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia. Nine satellite islets ranging in size from approximately one to 26 hectares surround the main island. While little forest cover remains the islands support an assemblage of seabirds unlike those found elsewhere in French Polynesia with eleven species, seven of which are petrels and shearwaters including an endemic form of the White-bellied storm petrel.
Pacific rats, feral cats and goats are present throughout the islands, but their distribution is uncertain. Records of storm petrels on four of the islets suggest these may be rat free, but their presence elsewhere will be impacting sensitive species like storm petrels. Cats are at least present on the mainland and any seabirds there only survive in inaccessible areas. Goats are widespread and their over-grazing is leading to soil erosion creating poor conditions for petrels breeding in burrows. The isolation of Rapa means very little conservation assistance has been provided to this community however, the BirdLife Partner has an established history of working with Polynesian communities and considerable expertise in seabird surveys and invasive species eradication.
Thanks to the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation project development, planning and consultation will start in 2016. We need to raise over $1.5 million for the actual operation and that will be our target to allow us to secure the future of the species on these biodiversity hotspots in 2018.
2015 saw some important successes in the Pacific battle for the birds and nature: here.
The `back-story’ to saving the Tahiti and Fatu Hiva Monarchs of French Polynesia: here.
France has the world’s 2nd largest ocean territory. Will they protect it? Here.
Appointment of an Island Restoration Manager marks the start of BirdLife’s ambitious project to restore the Marquesas Archipelago and Rapa: here.
New research has confirmed that invasive rats decimate seabird populations, with previously unrecognized consequences for the extensive coral reefs that encircle and protect these islands. Invasive predators such as rats — which feed on bird eggs, chicks, and even adults birds — are estimated to have decimated seabird populations within 90 percent of the world’s temperate and tropical island groups, but until now the extent of their impact on surrounding coral reefs wasn’t known: here.
From BirdLife:
Fatu Hiva Monarch on the brink of extinction
By Mike Britton, Fri, 30/10/2015 – 05:25
The Fatu Hiva Monarch is not as well-known as its cousin, the Tahiti Monarch, but i’s existence is even more threatened. It lives on Fatu Hiva, a remote island which is part of the Marquesas Archipelago, 1500 km from Tahiti. There are now just 25 adults left in the world and as few as 5 fertile pairs. Its survival totally depends on controlling predator threats to the birds and nests in the valleys where it lives.
This bird is also almost completely dependent on BirdLife’s French Polynesia partner, Société d’Ornithologie de Polynésie (SOP MANU) and the local community. The programme is lead locally by the islander Arthur Matohi, SOP Manu’s employee on the island who is assisted by 2 local staff members. They have worked on the project since 2012. SOP Manu ecologists Thomas Ghestemme and Caroline Blanvillain are responsible for management of the birds in the valleys they inhabit. The field work is challenging because of the steep terrain and the dense humid vegetation of the valleys.
There is some good news – 2014 saw the best chick production ever with 8 young fledged compared with 6 in 2013 and 2 in 2012. These improved results (the best since the programme started in 2008) are attributed to the predator control which increased by 24% in 2014.
The bad news is a number of unmated and mature individuals left the safety of the managed area resulting in a decrease in the total known population from 29 to 25 adults. Luckily 90% of all Fatu Hiva Monarch live within the areas managed by SOP Manu where the population increased slightly between 2007 and 2014 (11 to 19 birds) and was stable between 2013 and 2015.
A key part of the programme involves increasing awareness of nature by the children and working with a Site Support Group. Supporting the community to develop sustainable income sources is important especially because the valleys where the Monarch live are owned by local landowners. Through this 28 of the land owners have undertaken bee-keeping training in Fatu Hiva. The number of hives has increased from 58 to 131. Three inhabitants have been trained to protect Fatu Hiva Monarch and 6 landowners started to replace banana trees with fruit trees near the rivers. A recreational pathway has been managed in Omoa valley for farmers and tourists. In 2014, 32 tourists visited monarchs in Fatu Hiva. Through the Site Support Group, cat sterilization in the village has been carried out for the last 3 years by SOP Manu veterinarian Caroline Blanvillain.
The mission to save this species from extinction is very challenging. It is a tiny population that is barely viable and relief in the form of translocation to a predator free island is currently not possible. In 2015, high predation by feral cats occurred because there simply weren’t the resources to increase cat control. Collaboration with Island Conservation in October 2015 will assist SOP Manu in refining the feral cat control to further improve its effectiveness. In bringing additional expertise and new techniques to the predator control, it is hoped that rats, feral cats and other introduced predators can be controlled to sufficiently low levels in maintaining a population within this sanctuary while an island is also cleared of introduced predators in providing a permanent solution to the recovery of this critically endangered bird.
But the big issue is resources. Some local organisations have made donations including (Aranui Charter boats, Chinloy, Océanie Pneu and Hanavai. 11 private donors have sponsored banded birds but a big increase in resources is the only way to save this species.
We know it can be done and it would be criminal to lose this wonderful bird.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 