Monitoring populations is vitally important for determining and tracking the conservation status of Falkland Islands’ species. It is also crucial in helping to identify key factors influencing population trends. Falklands Conservation has carried out Island-wide censuses of Falklands’ wildlife for many years. These censuses vary in their complexity, but in the Falklands, with over 700 different Islands, the logistics of delivering them mean they are usually very challenging. Recently there have been increasing moves to aerial surveying and development of satellite imagery counting techniques, but for some species it is simply necessary to get to work on the ground!
Approximately every 10 years FC conduct island-wide surveys of Black-browed Albatross and Southern Giant Petrel – two of the three ACAP species present in the Islands, both for which the Falklands are the key site globally.
As a globally key site for at least two penguin species we also conduct censuses of Gentoo and Southern Rockhopper Penguin on a ten year cycle. A census of Striated Caracara was conducted by FC in 2014.
Falkland Conservation’s Island-wide Census Reports are available here.
