Cats and Birds information on net.

I

IN 1951 THE WORLD SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY was stunned by the announcement that the cahow - a bird whose name had become synonymous with extinction because it was thought to have become extinct in the 1600s, around the same time as the dodo - had just been rediscovered. The cahow is a member of the petrel family, in the order which contains albatrosses and shearwaters. It ranges widely in the North Atlantic to the western edge of the Gulf Stream, where it feeds on squid and fish, but it breeds only on the 20 square miles of oceanic islands of Bermuda, located at 32 degrees North and 64 degrees west in the western reaches of the Sargasso Sea, 580 miles east of Cape Hatteras.

As the conservation program launched to save this extraordinary bird from extinction has gradually succeeded against all odds, expanding into the restoration of an entire terrestrial ecosystem on 15 -acre Nonsuch Island, the"cahow" has ultimately attained wider significance as a symbol of hope for conservationists around the world.

The history of man on Bermuda provides a stark contrast to the story of the cahow. Settled as a British colony on the strategic sea lanes between the old and new world, the island has become so successful economically that it is now threatened with environmental self-destruction. Bermuda is now the most densely populated, isolated geographic and political unit in the world, with a density of five people (and two houses) per acre and a growth rate of more than 500 new housing units a year.

The problems that conservationists confront in trying to resurrect the cahow, and the fragile oceanic island ecosystem that it symbolizes, can only be appreciated within the broader context of this human history. In telling the story of man and the cahow on Bermuda together, from pre-colonial time until the present, I want to try to convey in a chronological perspective what it is like to be involved with a very long-time restoration project - the patience required, the drudgery, the occasional agonizing setback, and, finally, those exhilarating breakthroughs that make it all seem worthwhile. Only in this way does it become apparent how closely the fate of these two species has become linked.

OUR STORY BEGINS more than 400 years ago when Bermuda was first discovered by Portuguese and Spanish navigators exploring the New World. In those days the treasure-laden galleons from the Spanish Main used to sail north from the West Indies to catch the westerly winds for their return home. Many came to grief in sudden, violent storms on Bermuda's uncharted reefs. As darkness overtook the stranded survivors they were terrified by the hordes of nocturnal seabirds coming and going to and from their nesting grounds each night. The sailors took them for evil spirits and named Bermuda "The Isle of Devils". The Spanish never settled Bermuda but they left a legacy of wild hogs behind to provide food for future shipwrecked mariners. The hogs caused such untold havoc among the seabirds that they ultimately destroyed far more than they provided.

It was in circumstances similar to those of the Spanish that the British first landed on Bermuda. In 1609, a fleet sailing to relieve the Virginia Colony was dispersed by a hurricane near Bermuda and the flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on its shores. The survivors set about building ships to make their escape. It took them nine months, and in that period Sir George Somers became so impressed by the island's natural beauty and virgin resources that he determined to start a colony.

In the clear surrounding waters the fish were so tame they could be caught by hand. The land itself was covered in dense forest, and two trees in particular were especially common. The Bermuda cedar provided valuable timber for ships and the palmetto provided leaves for thatching the huts and making ropes and basketware, Both trees provided edible berries for food.

But apart from the pigs released by the Spanish it was a land devoid of mammals. Indeed, the only fourfooted creature to reach Bermuda before man arrived was a smalllizard of the skink family An abundance of sea turtles hauled themselves up on the beaches to bask in the sun or lay their eggs. But by far the most dominant element of the fauna was the birds, because these had no difficulties in colonizing the island across the ocean.

There were landbirds of several species, so tame that they readily landed on the settlers' shoulders. We do not know all the species involved because many were soon to be exterminated by the impact of human settlement. Seabirds were even more abundant, because they were adapted to exploiting the food supply from a vast area of surrounding ocean. By day, tropicbirds or longtails, as we have come to know them, were conspicuous.

These diurnally active seabirds were eclipsed at night by nocturnally active shearwaters and petrels in even larger numbers. One of these, which came to be known as the cahow, outnumbered all of the others put together. The cahow was a ground-nesting, soilburrowing seabird, and it nested both along the coast and inland, under the forest canopy. Cahows are also some of the fastest and most efficient flyers in the world, and it was this extraordinary ability that enabled them to reach beyond the relatively sterile waters of the Sargasso Sea to feed in the rich upwellings of the Gulf Stream more than 400 miles away.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:20 AM