The Oxford Navigation Group

Europe’s rarest seabird is the Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), which breeds in the Mediterranean and migrates north up eastern Atlantic coasts in the summer. It is seen increasingly off Britain as post-breeding resources move north, with perhaps ¼ of the world population using our seas at times in late summer. But it is critically endangered, and faces as a species a deeply uncertain future. Despite this, still remarkably little is known about its behaviour and ecological needs: knowledge which must underpin conservation efforts to avert its extinction. At OxNav, we run a long-term research project collaborating with Spanish biologists in Palma, Barcelona and elsewhere, with organisations such as the RSPB, Natural England, and SEO/Birdlife, and with the help of the Balearic Islands' government, to try to fill important knowledge gaps and raise awareness of the species’ plight. We address fundamental questions about where and how breeding birds feed, their interactions with human fisheries, and how migration patterns are shifting with climate change. We are setting up longer term monitoring efforts to help assess key demographic parameters (breeding success, surivival, migration patterns), and to understand the effects of invasive predators.

 

 

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You can help
Our research efforts have always depended on voluntary contributions of time, effort and funds, in addition to small awards from organisations. You can help us take the work on into the future by giving a donation, of any size, that we can use to help purchase essential tracking devices (a geolocator costs about £165, and can be used to track individual bird migration and pinpoint the timing of its key life-history events for several years), artifical nest boxes (£50), or pay for boat fuel needed to visit the colonies (£25 for a week). If you want to donate to our Balearic shearwater project you can do so by clicking here.