New Zealand’s long-running effort to restore seabird colonies on Mana Island is showing signs of success decades after the first chicks were moved there. Between 1997 and 2021, conservation teams transferred 1,152 chicks from four petrel species to the island, where they were hand-fed before being released to sea. At least 992 are thought to have fledged, and many later returned as adults, with some coming back just one year after leaving. The project has since helped establish well-established, though still small and growing, colonies of three species. Recent surveys have also uncovered natural breeding burrows, suggesting the restoration is continuing to develop. The returning birds are particularly important because petrels spend much of their lives at sea and may take several years to begin breeding. Their return to Mana Island and discovery of breeding burrows indicate that the transferred birds are contributing to a growing, self-sustaining population there.
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