Miguel Mcminn

• University of the Balearic Islands

In the north-western Mediterranean there are two breeding species of procellariforms from the Procellariidae family: Scopoli’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea and the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus. Long-term monitoring carried out in a number of breeding colonies provides enough data to be able to assess the conservation status of both...

How individual animals respond to climate change is key to whether populations will persist or go extinct. Yet, few studies investigate how changes in individual behavior underpin these population-level phenomena. Shifts in the distributions of migratory animals can occur through adaptation in migratory behaviors, but there is little understanding...

The Natural History Society of the Balearic Islands was born at a moment after the end of World War II. A Society in which the majority of its members were men, highlights a handful of women who were the first to join and gave more meaning. Among these pioneers, in a clearly male world, 6 women should be highlighted: Teresa Valls Ramírez, Catalina...

Patterns of behavioural variation and migratory connectivity are important characteristics of populations, particularly at the edges of species distributions, where processes involved in influencing evolutionary trajectories, such as divergence, mutual persistence, and natural hybridization, can occur. Here, we focused on two closely related seabir...

Invasive alien species are a major threat to native insular species. Eradicating invasive mammals from islands is a feasible and proven approach to prevent biodiversity loss. We developed a conceptual framework to identify globally important islands for invasive mammal eradications to prevent imminent extinctions of highly threatened species using...

Table of islands, country or territory of ownership, invasive mammals and highly threatened species occurring on island, island rank reflecting conservation value, and timeframe assessed by socio-political survey in which an eradication could feasibly be initiated. Invasive mammal species listed are only those identified as having negative impact o...

Table of islands where no socio-political feasibility data was available during this study, country or territory of ownership, invasive mammals and highly threatened species occurring on island. Invasive mammal species listed are only those identified as having negative impact on highly threatened species and fall below island area and human popula...

Additional figures, tables and text supporting the main paper. (DOCX)

DISPONIBLE EN FORMAT PDF AL SEGÜENT ENLLAÇ: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqf4oayjdw786z8/Llibre%20VII%20Jornades%20de%20Medi%20Ambient%20Mallorca%2C%20Eivissa%20i%20Menorca%202018-19.pdf?dl=0

Aim The movement patterns of marine top predators are likely to reflect responses to prey distributions, which themselves can be influenced by factors such as climate and fisheries. The critically endangered Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus has shown a recent northwards shift in non‐breeding distribution, tentatively linked to changing for...

Worldwide, many seabirds are affected by fisheries in opposing ways: as a source of mortality from bycatch, but also by providing discards as a predictable and abundant food resource. This applies to the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, the most endangered European seabird, whose time to extinction was estimated at only ~40 years a decade...

Unprecedented changes to the marine environment and growth of bio-logging science make detailed study of the movement ecology of threatened marine species timely. Here, we study spatial and temporal patterns of marine space use by a critically endangered seabird: the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus. Using a suite of bio-logging systems, 6...

Analysis of pellets of European Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii collected at a non-breeding roost site in southern Mallorca identified 36 species of fish prey, belonging to 27 genera and to 16 families. This diversity is higher than in the diet of P. a. aristotelis in the Atlantic, and higher than in the previous literature for P. a. de...

Predators are an essential component of past and present ecosystems and trophic networks. In addition, their role as bone bio-accumulators may at least partly determine the richness of fossil sites. Prior to human arrival, terrestrial mammals were absent from the Pityusic Archipelago (Eivissa and Formentera islands, Western Mediterranean Sea), a fe...

The Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus is a Critically Endangered species endemic to the Balearic Islands, subject to a severe decline that could lead to the extinction of the species within three generations (Oro et al. 2004). Predation by introduced mammals is considered the main threat facing the species at its breeding grounds, and there...

Using combined miniature archival light and salt-water immersion loggers, we characterise the year-round individual at-sea movements of Europe's only critically endangered seabird, the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, for the first time. Focusing on the non-breeding period, we show that all of the 26 breeding birds tracked from their bree...

INTRODUCCIÓN: Las estimaciones de tamaño poblacional, hechas mediante metodologías distintas, suelen llevar a resultados diversos. Tomamos como ejemplo dos censos de la población reproductora de Pardela cenicienta Calonectris diomedea en la costa NO de Menorca, realizados en 1991 mediante escuchas nocturnas (>6000 parejas; Aguilar 1991) y mediante...

Capture–mark–recapture methods are used widely for monitoring and diagnosis of bird populations as they permit robust estimates of population abundance and demographic parameters (e.g. survival) to be obtained from incomplete records of individual life histories. The statistical analysis of these data relies on the important assumption that individ...

Previous reports have documented attacks by Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus on seabirds as large as Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus. The examples presented here demonstrate that Peregrines will also readily attack Balearic P. mauretanicus and Sooty Shearwaters P. griseus. The regular predation of Balearic Shearwaters at breeding colonies is p...

We evaluate sexual adult size dimorphism and provide a sex-discriminating function for the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus). Blood samples taken from adults were used to sex birds by the amplification of the CHD gene. Linear discriminant analysis was applied to eight morphometric characters to determine whether any single variable or com...

With very few exceptions, all vertebrate quaternary fossils of the Balearic Islands come from karstic related deposits. We describe the fossil remains of Phalacrocorax aristotelis from a Quaternary beachrock deposits. The index fossil species Strombus bubonius dates the shag remains to the Isotopic Substage 5e.

Lobesia botrana Den. et Schiff. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is recorded for first time from Cabrera island (Balearic Islands). The interesting presence of this vine pest in the archipelago is discussed from an agro-ecological perspective.

Conservation diagnosis should identify which demographic parameters (or vital rates) are having a negative effect on the population growth rate of a threatened organism. Diagnosis can analyse how the environment is influencing the vital rates of this organism. In the present study, we tried to improve the diagnosis of a critically endangered seabir...

A new species of rail is described from a Pleistocene and Holocene cave deposit on the island of Eivissa, Pityusic Islands (western Mediterranean Sea). Rallus eivissensis sp. nov. was an insular relative of the European Water Rail Rallus aquaticus. Compared with the extant Water Rail, the new species was smaller and stouter, had shorter and more ro...

In Mediterranean vineyards the European grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana, usually completes three non-overlapping larval generations per year. Larvae feed on inflorescences and unripe or ripe grapes. Previous work has shown that the larval food source has a huge effect on adult size and fitness. We investigated if larval food also affects the propen...

A data logger devised and manufactured by our research team in order to study the homing routes of carrier pigeons was subsequently modified to study the homing behaviour and foraging strategies of breeding marine birds. Recent versions of the data logger, equipped with a flight sensor and depth meter or saltwater switch, were used in a study of th...

A data logger devised and manufactured by our research team in order to study the homing routes of carrier pigeons was subsequently modified to study the homing behaviour and foraging strategies of breeding marine birds. Recent versions of the data logger, equipped with a flight sensor and depth meter or saltwater switch, were used in a study of th...

Planorbella duryi is an authocthonous Planorbid snail (Seminole Rams-horn) from the Florida peninsula (north America), and it has been found some times in Mallorca. Nevertheless, Planorbella has never been reported in the Balearic Islands. The aim of this paper is to assemble all the locations for this species in Mallorca and to warn about the risk...

The population size of the Mediterranean Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis breeding on Cabrera archipelago was evaluated by using capture‐recapture techniques (du Feu estimation) with the aid of tape‐lures at the breeding colonies. Both sub‐adult and adult birds were attracted by the tape lures at a similar rate, and both age groups show...

New records of fossil birds from Cova Nova are published. Some of these species clearly indicate a colder climate, and have a present range of distribution that is limited to the main European mountain chains or to boreal forests. -English summary

INTRODUCCION Las aves que comúnmente llamamos limícolas v que se agrupan en el suborden Charadrii (WETMORE, 1960; STORER, 1971) son junto con los Gaviiformes, Procellariiformes y Pelecaniformes las únicas aves modernas que tienen un registro fósil que se remonta al Cretácico (OLSON, 1985; UNWIN, 1993). El resto de los órdenes de aves modernas tiene...

D. 2007. Presencia de Phalacrocorax aristotelis (Linnaeus, 1761) en un depósito de playa del subestadio isotópico 5e en Mallorca (Illes Balears, Mediterráneo Occidental). Boll. Soco Hist. Nat. Balears, 50: 217-225. ISSN 0212-260X. Palma de Mallorca. En las Illes Balears, prácticamente todos los yacimientos que han aportado huesos de aves, son de or...