Author: Darren O'Connell

Darren O’Connell is a Postdoc in the Network Ecology Group, Newcastle University, comparing the network ecology of restored and natural mangrove sites. Darren completed his PhD in The Marples Lab in the Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, studying bird evolution and island biogeography in Sulawesi, Indonesia. His wider research interests include speciation, conservation biology, biodiversity monitoring and restoration ecology.
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Delicious Cuscus

Studying island bird biogeography in the tropics for my PhD has presented me with many weird and wonderful opportunities. None more so than accidentally becoming a mammologist along the way. My study region of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is home to the westernmost marsupial species in Asia, the Cuscus. Cuscus are like marsupial sloths, living life in the slow lane and spending most of their time foraging on leaves and digesting. The absence of large mammalian predators from Sulawesi means that they have few natural predators to disturb this sedate lifestyle. In a recent collaborative paper in Australian Mammalogy we report on the distribution and status of the endemic marsupials on the offshore islands of South-east Sulawesi.

Sulawesi Cuscus remain poorly studied; little is known about their ecology, the threats they face, and even their distribution within Sulawesi. The main focus of the cuscus research in South-east Sulawesi has been Buton Island, where researchers with Operation Wallacea have monitored populations for the past 15 years, revealing the Bear Cuscus (Ailurops ursinus) to be common, and providing the first evidence of the Small Sulawesi Cuscus (Strigocuscus celebensis) on the island. Both species are designated as Vulnerable (Helgen and Jackson 2015). Buton is likely one of the key sites for these species, retaining the largest tracts of lowland forest in the Sulawesi region, with 77% of the island’s 560 000ha still forested. Continue reading “Delicious Cuscus”

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Room for one more?: Egg fostering in seabirds

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When attempting to conserve a rare animal population sometimes every individual counts. Conservationists regularly go the extra mile to protect their study species. The conservation efforts implemented for the Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) in Britain and Ireland demonstrate the success these efforts can have. This species nests on shingle beaches and had experienced catastrophic population declines due to increasing development and use of beaches by people. Little Tern adults are very vulnerable to disturbance and their eggs are particularly vulnerable to walker’s boots! Thankfully a network of wardened colonies, run by a mixture of conservation organisations and enthusiastic volunteer groups, succeeded in stabilising this species’ population.

Continue reading “Room for one more?: Egg fostering in seabirds”

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Wild Goose Chase – cannon netting on the Inishkea Islands

Last March we had the fantastic opportunity to assist with cannon netting Barnacle Geese on the Inishkea Islands, a wild Atlantic outpost off the coast of Co. Mayo. This research was part of Dr David Cabot’s long term study of the Inishkea Barnacle Goose population, which breed in Greenland and return to the west coast of Ireland each winter. Dr Cabot has been studying this population since 1961, providing the longest running dataset of any Arctic migrant breeding in Europe. He established the project as an undergraduate in our very own Zoology Department in Trinity (back in the good old days when Catholics could only join Trinity with the permission of their Archbishop, lest they be corrupted by the insidious Protestant ethos of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elisabeth!!). Our part in Inishkea was to help catch geese to attach unique inscribed colour ring combinations to their legs. This allows individuals to be tracked to provide information on individual longevity and productivity. Re-sighting of these colour ringed individuals coupled with satellite tracking data have also allowed the timing and route of this population’s migration to be mapped out. Such monitoring is important as a large proportion of the Greenland population of Barnacle Geese winter in Ireland, and Inishkea is one of their most important wintering grounds. Continue reading “Wild Goose Chase – cannon netting on the Inishkea Islands”

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Predators: feathered friend or foe?

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On Wednesday January 14th the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk radio station hosted Professor Luke O’Neill (a prominent Trinity College Dublin Immunologist), in a segment exploring the causes of the huge declines seen in European bird populations newstalk.ie/player/podcast. Comments from both Professor O’Neill and Mr. Kenny implicating raptors and corvids in these bird declines provoked a storm on social media. Every Irish environmental NGO has strongly condemned these implications. Professor O’Neill was not in possession of the full facts and has apologised*. Predatory birds are not responsible for severe declines in many bird populations [1] and here at TCD EcoEvo we lay out the real reasons for these declines and show why natural predators like Red Kites, White-tailed Sea-eagles and Golden Eagles are in fact of huge benefit to ecosystems. Continue reading “Predators: feathered friend or foe?”

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A tern-up for the books

Little Tern taking off from nest © Andrew Power and Peter Cutler
Little Tern taking off from nest © Andrew Power and Peter Cutler

The last two years have seen successive record breeding seasons for Little Terns (Sternula albifrons) on the Irish east coast, with over 350 pairs breeding in 2013 and over 400 pairs in 2014. These record years are the result of 30 years of dedicated efforts to rescue Little Terns as an Irish breeding species, after population collapses in the 1980s and 1990s. As part of the BirdWatch Ireland team involved in these two exceptional years, we reflect on the conservation success story which has led to this remarkable tern-around in fortunes. Continue reading “A tern-up for the books”