Islands worldwide have sufered seabird extinctions after the arrival of humans and the alien species they introduced. On
Santa Luzia (Cabo Verde), an uninhabited island of 35 km2
,the presence of an impressive quantity of petrel bones in coastal
dunes suggested the previous existence of an important seabird colony. Yet, these remains had not been identifed and no
seabird extinctions have been reported for the island. This paper characterizes the extinct seabird colony of Santa Luzia and
discusses the chronology and possible causes of its demise. A total of 130 grid points in a 5 km2
area and 38 supplementary
points within and outside the main study area were excavated to collect bone remains. A total of 1318 anatomical elements,
identifed as White-faced Storm Petrel Pelagodroma marina eadesorum (85.3% of the minimum number of individuals,
MNI), Boyd’s Shearwater Pufnus lherminieri boydi (11.8% MNI) and Cape Verde Storm Petrel Hydrobates jabejabe (2.9%
MNI), were found in 18% of the sampling points, within 1.25 km2
. Neither of the two former species currently breeds on
Santa Luzia. In addition, two bones of the Cape Verde Shearwater Calonectris edwardsii and Pterodroma sp. were detected
in the supplementary points. Radiocarbon dating of White-faced Storm Petrel (n=10) and Boyd’s Shearwater bones (n=13)
suggests that the colony probably went extinct during the frst half of the twentieth century. The recent extinction of these
species on Santa Luzia might be consequent on the arrival of humans and their domestic animals on the island. We estimate
that the extinct seabird populations must have been at least hundreds of thousand strong, far larger than current populations
of the same species in Cabo Verde. We suggest that, following feral cat eradication, Santa Luzia has a signifcant potential
for seabird restorationFundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
