For a decade, the Santa Barbara Zoo has been helping give threatened western snowy plovers a second chance in the wild, and on Sept. 22 it reached a milestone:
More than 200 snowy plovers have been released back into the wild through the zoo’s conservation program, the zoo reports.
To give the vulnerable birds the care they need to survive, grow and return to the wild, the Santa Barbara Zoo has worked alongside numerous conservation partners including:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Service, California State Parks, UCSB Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve, Naval Base Ventura County, Point Blue Conservation Science, Vandenberg Spaceforce Base, San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, Ventura Audubon Society, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Aquarium of the Pacific, and Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network
“From incubating eggs and caring for chicks to rehabilitating adult birds, the zoo’s animal care and conservation teams provide specialized expertise throughout the birds’ journey back to the coast,” the zoo said.
The zoo’s latest release this week at UCSB Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve (COPR) included 11 snowy plovers outfitted with state-of-the-art tracking devices from Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT), allowing conservationists to gather valuable information about their movements and survival after release.
The zoo uses two types of tracking devices: the HybridTag, which uses radiotelemetry, and the BluBird, which uses Bluetooth technology.
Both devices can upload data to the Motus network, an international collaborative research network that tracks the movement and behavior of migratory animals.
The devices transmit data when detected by Motus towers, such as the one stationed on top of The Wave at the Zoo or the one at COPR, while BluBird tags can also be detected by Bluetooth technology on cellular phones.
Previously, CTT Motus tags had been used to track western snowy plovers at two field sites, one in Baja, Mexico, and one managed by the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO), the zoo said.
As a part of the collaborative effort for plover recovery, a biologist from SFBBO traveled to the Santa Barbara Zoo to help train staff on how to apply the tags similarly to how their program was trained by the Baja field site.
Because of the strong partnerships between plover conservation organizations, this now marks the first time rehabilitated plovers will be monitored using this technology after being released to the wild, giving zoo conservationists a better understanding of the birds’ behavior at a much finer scale then they previously had access to, the zoo reports.
Having six BluBird tags and five HybridTags on the landscape will also help the western snowy plover recovery program better understand which technology is most effective for continued monitoring of plover movement and behavior.
“It’s so rewarding to be able to take a step back and consider the impact that releasing 212 plovers has made toward recovering the western snowy plover,” says Nadya Seal Faith, Conservation & Science associate.
“But now it’s even more exciting that we are taking our program to the next level by entering a new technological era that will enable us to better understand how these plovers are supporting wild populations and allow us to help inform management options going forward,” Faith said.
The zoo provides specialized daily care and veterinary expertise for plovers throughout their rehabilitation, from incubation and hatching to development and release.
The zoo also recently became a Master Banding Station, which allows permitted staff to attach colored leg bands and tags to plovers that meet release criteria to help monitor their movements and survivorship after release.
Prior to becoming a Master Banding Station, the zoo partnered with Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area to band zoo-released plovers.
Through the banding program, released birds have been observed nesting as far south as San Diego, and have been spotted as far north as the Oregon coast.
“While the colored leg-banding program has been tremendous in understanding post-release plover behavior, the new Motus tags have the potential to increase detection rates exponentially and give conservationists insights that had previously been out of reach,” zoo officials said.
The tiny snowy plovers, listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, are brought to the zoo from beaches within the tri-county area as either eggs, chicks or adults as a result of immediate life-threatening situations.
Western snowy plover nesting season is typically between March and September. Plovers lay their eggs directly on sandy beaches where their highly camouflaged eggs and chicks help them avoid predation threats, but make them difficult to see by beachgoers.
At the same time, urbanization has greatly increased gull, corvid, and raptor populations, which in turn has increased predation risk to this vulnerable species, the zoo said.
Beach recreation, dogs, habitat loss, predators and accidental nest disturbance all pose threats to plover recovery.
Beachgoers can help protect threatened western snowy plovers by:
● Staying outside roped-off nesting areas from March through September.
● Keeping dogs leashed and using designated dog beaches.
● Avoiding using kites and drones near plover nesting areas.
● Packing out food scraps that can attract predators.
Zoo visitors can learn more about these small but important shorebirds at the newly refreshed Richard Block Conservation Hub.
To learn more about the zoo’s conservation work, visit https://www.sbzoo.org/conservation.