Grenada Dove - Conservation

Conservation

Very little is known about this species. Population estimates by various researchers indicate that there may be fewer than 100 individuals remaining in the wild (Blockstein 1988), and declines in numbers may have occurred between 1987 and 1991. The last published population estimates were produced by David Blockstein in 1991. Results of point count surveys conducted during research associated with the Grenada Dry Forest Ecosystem Protection Project indicate very low numbers of the dove immediately following Hurricane Ivan. Only five birds were documented calling simultaneously in the Mt. Hartman Watershed during April–June 2005 and only three birds were calling during August–December 2005 in the same areas. During the August–December stime period five birds were documented in the Clarks Court Bay watershed and four were documented in the Beausejeur watershed using point count methods.

This dove is classified as critically endangered by BirdLife International.

The Grenada Government - in cooperation with the World Bank - set up two reserve zones in 1996 to preserve the dove: the Perseverance and adjacent Woodford Estates, which are adjacent to a landfill and abandoned quarry site, in the west of the island and a sanctuary of c.150 acres (0.61 km2) within the Mount Hartman Estate, a former government cattle farm and sugarcane plantation, in the south. Camera surveys of the Mount Hartman area failed to record the presence of Grenada doves there immediately following Hurricane Ivan in 2005 and only eighteen encounters with Grenada doves occurred during April–December 2005. According to some studies, the Mount Hartman Sanctuary was never considered adequate for the dove’s survival and other understudied populations are located along the western coast in the Beausejour and Black Bay watersheds. Some of these populations have been recognised since the 1980s. Further populations may exist but there has never been a complete island-wide survey to verify this.