Balearic Shearwater

This Balearic Shearwater was with the resident Manx Shearwaters last night off Annet , Balearic Shearwaters have a tiny breeding range and a small population which is undergoing an extremely rapid population decline owing to a number of threats, in particular predation at breeding colonies by introduced mammals and at-sea mortality as a result of fisheries by-catch. Population models predict an extremely rapid decline over three generations (54 years), qualifying the species as Critically Endangered. However, this assumption was based on the existence of a population of c. 2,000 breeding pairs, which could have been underestimated according to recent population estimates and records at sea.