Impacts des éclairages urbains sur les pétrels de Barau, Pterodroma baraui sur l'Ile de la Réunion et mesures pour réduire ces impacts

The island of Reunion (55'30E; 21'00S) has two endemic petrels, one of which is Barau's Petrel (Pterodroma baraui), classified as 'Endangered' (IUCN 2000). This species is under threat from several sources: predation by introduced mammals, poaching, and strandings. Petrel deaths resulting from city lights is a recent phenomenon related to urbanisation of the island. Young birds on fledging are attracted by the lights, and fall to the ground where they risk being killed. Rescue operations have mobilised the local population, and between 1995 and 2004, 3 762 Barau's Petrels were retrieved. The main stranding sites were identified. The most attractive structures were the illuminated road network (37.8%) and sports complexes (24.4%) (n = 1 652). Experiments on Puffinus lherminieri bailloni showed that the least attractive lighting colours are red and yellow, the most attractive green and blue. These findings enable us to propose measures to ameliorate the impact of city lights on the young petrels, by adjusti...