Page 1 - Invasive_rats_2009

Biol Invasions (2009) 11:1631–1651
DOI 10.1007/s10530-008-9394-z
INVASIVE RODENTS ON ISLANDS

Invasive rats and seabirds after 2,000 years of an unwanted
coexistence on Mediterranean islands

L. Ruffino Æ K. Bourgeois Æ E. Vidal Æ C. Duhem Æ M. Paracuellos Æ
F. Escribano Æ P. Sposimo Æ N. Baccetti Æ M. Pascal Æ D. Oro

Received: 14 November 2007 / Accepted: 24 September 2008 / Published online: 20 January 2009
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

Abstract In the Mediterranean, the survival of scale, rat presence was only a limiting factor in the
endemic long-lived seabirds despite the long-standing abundance of the smallest seabird, the storm petrel
introduction of one of the most damaging alien (Hydrobates pelagicus), while the distribution and
predator, the ship rat (Rattus rattus), on most islands abundance of the three shearwaters were more
constitutes an amazing conservation paradox. A influenced by island characteristics. We hypothesized
database gathering information on approximately that the long-term persistence of these seabirds may
300 Western Mediterranean islands was analyzed have been facilitated by the various biogeographical
through generalized linear models to identify the contexts of Mediterranean islands, likely to provide
factors likely to influence ship rat presence and to intra-island refuges.
account for how ship rat presence and island char-
acteristics may have driven the presence and Keywords Coexistence Introduced predators
abundance of seabirds. Our review showed that few Islands Mediterranean Procellariiformes
Mediterranean islands remain rat-free. At the regional Rattus rattus

L. Ruffino (&) K. Bourgeois E. Vidal C. Duhem N. Baccetti
IMEP-CNRS, Paul Ce ´zanne University, Ba ˆtiment Istituto Nazionale per la Fauna Selvatica via ca’
Villemin, Domaine du Petit Arbois, Avenue Philibert, Fornacetta 9, 40064 Ozzano Emilia BO, Italy
B.P. 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Ce ´dex 04, France
e-mail: ruffino_lise@yahoo.fr M. Pascal
INRA SCRIBE, E ´ quipe E ´ cologie des Invasions
´
´
M. Paracuellos Biologiques, UMR Ecologie et Sante ´ des Ecosyste `mes,
Grupo de Investigacion Ecologia Acuatica y Acuicultura, Campus de Beaulieu, 35000 Rennes, France
Universidad de Almeria Apdo. 110, 04770 Adra, Almerı ´a,
Spain D. Oro
Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avancats IMEDEA
F. Escribano (CSIC-UIB), Miquel Marques 21, 07190 Esporles,
Direccio ´n General del Medio Natural, Consejerı ´ade Mallorca, Spain
Desarrollo Sostenible y Ordenacio ´n del Territorio,
´
a
C/Catedra ´tico Eugenio Ubeda, 3 3 planta. Despacho 302,
30008 Murcia, Spain
P. Sposimo
NEMO, Nature and Environment Management Operators
S.r.l., Piazza D’Azeglio 11, 50121 Florence, Italy

123