Erradicación de conejos y gatos en Montaña Clara y Alegranza — Parque Natural del Archipiélago Chinijo

The Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park, Spain's first maritime-terrestrial natural park (established 1986), lies off Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and hosts important seabird colonies including Cory's shearwater, Bulwer's petrel and storm-petrels, historically threatened by invasive feral cats and rabbits on the islets of Alegranza and Montana Clara.

To eradicate invasive feral cats and rabbits from the islets of Alegranza and Montana Clara in order to protect breeding seabird colonies.

Cabildo de Lanzarote and Gobierno de Canarias implemented feral cat control on Alegranza and a dedicated rabbit-eradication programme on Montana Clara between 2000 and 2001, as part of a broader 1994-2002 programme.

On Alegranza, feral cat control removed the last recorded animal in 1998. On Montana Clara, the rabbit-eradication programme removed 127 individuals between 2000 and 2001 at a documented cost of EUR 629,306; rabbits have not recolonised the islet since. An independent baseline survey, Rodriguez et al. (2003, Atlantic Seabirds 5: 41-56), subsequently surveyed breeding-seabird status and distribution across the northern islets.

The programme achieved durable removal of both invasive species with no recorded recolonisation of Montana Clara by rabbits. However, it is government-run rather than independently certified, and no islet-specific post-eradication seabird population trend (as opposed to presence/absence status) has been documented.