University of Liverpool seabird tracking in Anguilla 2012-2015

Dr. Louise Soanes, University of Roehampton, UK
Dr. Jonathan Green, University of Liverpool, UK
Dr. Jenny Bright, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK
Ms. Farah Mukhida, Anguilla National Trust
Ms. Susan Zaluski, Jost Van Dykes Preservation Society, British Virgin Islands

The UK Overseas Territories of Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands are located in the north-west Lesser Antilles. Whilst mainland Anguilla lacks any large breeding seabird populations, its offshore cays excel in this area and are home to five globally and 12 regionally important populations. Four of Anguilla’s seven offshore cays are already designated as terrestrial important bird areas (IBAs) due to their important seabird colonies, with Dog Island being the second most important site for breeding seabirds in the region. The British Virgin Islands (composed of 60 cays) support two globally important populations of Magnificent frigatebird and Roseate tern and have three IBAs designated for breeding seabird populations. This study uses GPS tracking data collected from the guild of globally and regionally important seabird populations breeding within these two Territories to identify important foraging areas, and relate these to oceanographic variables and potential threats such as fishing activity and coastal/marine developments.

This project is being led by the University of Liverpool (UK) in collaboration with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Anguilla National Trust, Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society and British Virgin Islands National Parks Trust, with support from the Anguillan Government’s Fisheries and Marine Resources Department and the BVI Conservation and Fisheries Department, and funded by the UK’s Darwin Plus Initiative.

This project aimed to:
(1) identify key feeding areas of seabirds using GPS technology,
(2) establish and support long-term monitoring strategies in Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands, and
(3) identify current and future threats facing seabird populations in Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.

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Overview

This section explains attributes included in the original dataset. OBIS-SEAMAP restricts the attributes available to the public to date/time, lat/lon and species names/counts only. Should you need other attributes described here, you are encouraged to contact the data provider.

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downloadable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission.

Attributes in dataset

Attribute (table column)	Description
oid	Unique ID (created by OBIS-SEAMAP)
recnum	Record number (created by OBIS-SEAMAP)
sp_obs	Species observed
birdid	Bird ID number
age	Adult
breedstage	chick-rearing
obs_date	Date of observation
obs_time	Time of observation
latitude	Latitude of observation
longitude	Longitude of observation
site	Site of tagging
series	Unique id, based on birdid, site of tagging, and species
sciname	Scientific name of species observated
sp_tsn	Species ITIS TSN
obs_count	Number of animals observed (1)
geom	Geometry (created by OBIS-SEAMAP)