LIFE+ Pétrels — Predator Control & Light-Pollution Reduction for Endemic Seabirds (Réunion, France)

LIFE+ Pétrels (EU reference LIFE13 BIO/FR/000075, "Halting the decline of endemic Petrels from Reunion Island") ran from 1 July 2014 to 31 July 2020, with a total eligible budget of EUR 3,100,500 (50% EU co-funded), coordinated by Parc national de La Réunion with SEOR (Société d'Etudes Ornithologiques de La Réunion), Université de La Réunion, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) and more than 30 local and national partners.

The programme combined feral-cat trapping (98 cats captured over more than 6,500 hectares in 2016 alone; a park-sourced tally cites 440 cats captured via cage traps plus 8 via lethal devices across 2015-2020) with rat control on Barau's petrel nesting sites (about 5 hectares treated over repeated passes in 2016), and a "Nuits sans Lumière" light-pollution campaign that cut fledgling-disorientating light by 15% and targeted renovation of over 26,000 light points — grounded fledglings are rescued by the thousands most seasons under the associated "SOS Petrels" scheme.

For the Mascarene petrel, one of the world's rarest seabirds, the project discovered its first-ever known nests (2-4 colonies, 18 active sites in remote southern ravines), with breeding success rising from 0% to roughly 78-80% between 2016 and 2020 as predator pressure was reduced. Barau's petrel monitoring covered 320-plus burrows across two colonies, with 366 adults and 796 fledglings banded and 97 birds fitted with tracking devices.

Predation is not eliminated: a 2021/2024 Imaz Press report quotes the national park describing feral cats as a threat that is "hard to stem," with lethal control continuing as a last resort alongside sterilisation. No dedicated LIFE funding continued after July 2020; the work is now folded into France's 2021-2030 National Action Plan for endemic petrels, and no peer-reviewed publication of the project's outcomes was located in this review.

Read more: https://reunion-parcnational.fr/fr/des-actions/proteger-et-gerer/les-projets-de-conservation/life-petrel

Read the full analysis: https://reunion-parcnational.fr/fr/des-actions/proteger-et-gerer/les-projets-de-conservation/life-petrel