Gould's Petrel

Gould's petrels spend most of their life at sea and come ashore only to breed. Prior to the 1990s it was thought that the Australian subspecies of Gould's petrel bred only on Cabbage Tree Island off Port Stephens in New South Wales. After the discovery of a small number of breeding pairs on neighbouring Boondelbah Island, translocation of 200 chicks in 1999 and 2000 has established a small satellite colony which breeds in artificial nest boxes that were installed prior to the first translocation . In December 2009, just one month after it had been confirmed that rabbits had been eliminated from Cabbage Tree Island, one single Gould's petrel was found incubating an egg on another nearby island, Broughton Island. Today, the nominate subspecies breeds on at least five islands off New South Wales (Cabbage Tree Island, Boondelbah Island, Broughton Island, Little Broughton Island, and Montague Island). The New Caledonian subspecies breeds on New Caledonia on steep forested valleys on the central mountain chain, from 350–500 metres above sea level between Mountains Dzumac and Poya. There is also a small colony on Raivavae in French Polynesia. Both subspecies forage in the Tasman Sea during the breeding season and may venture as far west as the Indian Ocean south of south-western Western Australia before laying. After breeding, Gould's petrel migrates to the central (P. l. leucoptera) and eastern (P. l. caledonica) Pacific Ocean. Gould's petrels (of unknown subspecies) were sighted in December 1994 in waters south of Western Australia. It is deduced that these were not breeding birds, because in December breeding birds are incubating (see Life history below), and these waters are too far from the breeding colonies for a foraging trip.

Active conservation management for the Australian subspecies of Gould's petrel has been so successful that the conservation status of the subspecies has been down-graded from endangered to vulnerable. In 2010, the total population of the Australian subspecies was estimated to be 2,500 individuals and increasing. At the same time, the population of the New Caledonian subspecies was estimated at 10,000 individuals and decreasing. However, this number is no more than an estimate and scientists do not have high confidence that it is correct. The New Caledonian subspecies is also classified as vulnerable because of its restricted geographic breeding range.