Decline and Recovery
When explorers first discovered Lord Howe Island in 1788, they identified 15 bird species including the then common woodhen. Being flightless, curious, and having never been hunted, they became a readily available source of food for visiting sailors and the island's early human population. Since its discovery and the arrival of settlers on the island in 1834), nine of these 15 species became extinct. The woodhen declined in numbers until the late 1970s, when surveys showed that the population had dropped to less than 30 birds, confined to the difficult to access summit regions of the island's two mountains, Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird.
A comprehensive study was done to determine the cause of the decline, which was eventually attributed to the introduction of feral pigs. The elimination of the pigs and other disruptive animals (goats), plus a programme of ex-situ conservation (captive breeding) which commenced in May 1980 (the first egg was laid in June 1980), allowed the Lord Howe Rail to recover its numbers. The captive breeding program was funded with $150,000 from the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife, which was spent to construct the compound and to employ scientists involved in this project.
Today there are about 250 birds, which may be the optimal population size for the island.
The analysis of the threats to the Lord Howe Rail, and the solution, is considered a model for conservation biology. A number of possible causes of the decline were on the island, from introduced rats to Tasmanian Masked Owls. However, only the elimination of the pigs would have saved the species from extinction, and identifying the cause and solution in a timely manner was crucial to the success of the programme.
Following success with the woodhen, there have been recovery efforts for other endemic species on Lord Howe Island, including the Lord Howe Flax Snail (Placostylus bivaricosus) and the Lord Howe Currawong (Strepera graculina crissalis).
Read more about this topic: Lord Howe Woodhen
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