A New Hope for the rarest finch in Galápagos

A New Hope for the rarest finch in Galápagos

The rarest of the Darwin finches- icons of adaptive radiation - the Mangrove Finch, enter a new era to divert their imminent path to extinction.

In a joint effort, scientists and park wardens of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Darwin Initiative, the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park, have been working on the most endangered Darwin finch species since 2006.

Initially, an "extreme close up site inventory" was carried out to find surviving individuals, followed by a DNA analysis of the only three known populations;  then the team set about finding out the main reasons behind the population decline. Finally, actions were taken to repopulate breeding pairs to areas where the mangrove Finch was known to live in the past.

Less than 100 individuals exist, scattered in only 3 small mangrove patches on Isabela Island; the smallest group consisting of less than 10 individuals. Introduced species and diseases could be the reason for the decline of a species that possibly never had large number of individuals.

In the last years, the mangrove finch project brought the first positive results, after a deep and systematic control upon the introduced rats brought a slight increase in both habitat and population sizes.

This year a bold step was taken by the Mangrove Finch project leaders, and the first breeding adult individuals where relocated to Urbina Bay on central Isabela Island. Urbina Bay, a visitor site Metropolitan Touring vessels will include starting February 2012, has 30 hectares of mangrove habitat, ideal for the critically-endangered finch.

Constant monitoring reports of the relocated finches provide us with encouraging reasons to hope the mangrove Finch will soon be removed from the red list of critically endangered species.

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