Conservation of marine birds of northern North America: / papers from the international symposium held at the Seattle Hyatt House

by Unknown

We believe re-scoring of all birds on the basis of various projects should be avoided because a standard against which individual projects can be measured is needed. If everyone did their own scoring, there would be no standard, and projects evaluated by different investigators would not be comparable. If a species list for the project area and standard point scores are used, the level of involvement for many species and perhaps for most species will be properly identified. As with any system, there will be exceptions and the assessor will need to deal with these as appropriate. The result will still be to focus attention on those species and impacting factors where it is most needed.

Table 4. Oil Vulnerability Index for 109 species of birds of Southeast Alaska (Total Points—2,678).

OVI 1-20		OVI 21-40		OVI 41-60		OVI 61-80		OVI 81-100
Marsh hawk	19	Great blue heron	29	Common loon	47	Pelagic cormorant	63	Pigeon guillemot	82
52 species, rare or occasional (one point each)	52	Canada goose	34	Arctic loon	58	Oldsquaw	66	Marbled murrelet	84
		White-fronted goose	36	Red-throated loon	49	White-winged scoter	72
		Snow goose	32	Red-necked grebe	44	Surf scoter	72
		Mallard	36	Horned grebe	48	Black oystercatcher	65
		Pintail	36	Whistling swan	50	Northern phalarope	62
		Green-winged teal	34	Trumpeter swan	63	Common murre	70
		American wigeon	36	Greater scaup	52
		Semipalmated plover	28	Lesser scaup	52
		Killdeer	26	Common goldeneye	48
		Common snipe	29	Barrow's goldeneye	56
		Spotted sandpiper	24	Bufflehead	52
		Greater yellowlegs	30	Harlequin duck	60
		Lesser yellowlegs	30	Common merganser	56
		Pectoral sandpiper	32	Red-breasted merganser	56
		Least sandpiper	34	Bald eagle	58
		Herring gull	38	Peregrine falcon	41
		Bonaparte's gull	40	Black turnstone	57
		Arctic tern	32	Rock sandpiper	59
		Belted kingfisher	28	Dunlin	41
		Common raven	21	Short-billed dowitcher	41
		Western sandpiper		47
		Glaucous-winged gull		56
		Thayer's gull		42
		Mew gull		44
		Northwestern crow		47
Totals	71	665	1,324	470	166

Table 5. Oil Vulnerability Index for 123 species of birds of the Aleutian Islands (Total Points—2,689).

OVI 1-20		OVI 21-40		OVI 41-60		OVI 61-80		OVI 81-100
80 species, rare or occasional (one point each)	80	Canada goose	34	Fulmar	57	Fork-tailed storm-petrel	67	Pigeon guillemot	82
		Least sandpiper	34	Slender-billed shearwater	53	Leach's storm-petrel	63	Whiskered auklet	88
		Arctic tern	32	Greater scaup	52	Pelagic cormorant	63
		Common raven	21	Common goldeneye	48	Red-faced cormorant	63
		Bufflehead		52	Black Brant	70
		Harlequin duck		60	Emperor goose	70
		Bald eagle		58	Oldsquaw	66
		Peregrine falcon		41	Steller's eider	72
		Ruddy turnstone		44	Common eider	68
		Rock sandpiper		59	King eider	70
		Western sandpiper		47	White-winged scoter	72
		Red phalarope		58	Common scoter	72
		Parasitic jaeger		43	Black oystercatcher	65
		Glaucous-winged gull		56	Red-legged kittiwake	66
		Black-legged kittiwake		49	Common murre	70
		Thick-billed murre		70
		Ancient murrelet		74
		Parakeet auklet		80
		Crested auklet		76
		Least auklet		80
		Horned puffin		72
		Tufted puffin		72
Totals	80	121	777	1,541	170

We have used our OVI system to show the vulnerability of birds to oil, but it seems likely that the vulnerability index could be applied on a much broader scale to help make decisions in other areas of human activity and resource development. The vulnerability index system could be applied to terrestrial as well as aquatic species by adding or subtracting impacting factors, as appropriate. Indexes relating the impact of man upon each North American species could have broad uses in the field of conservation. Population explosions, as well as declines, might be predictable. Human activity could be better adjusted to favor or depress wildlife populations, as appropriate.

We believe that this vulnerability index system has promise for aiding in the decision-making processes upon which future bird conservation will depend.

References

American Ornithologists' Union. 1957. Check-list of North American birds. 5th ed. Lord Baltimore Press, Baltimore, Maryland.

Fay, F. H., and T. J. Cade. 1959. An ecological analysis of the avifauna of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool. 63(2):73-150.

Gabrielson, J. N., and F. C. Lincoln. 1959. The birds of Alaska. The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, Pa., and Wildlife Management Institute, Washington, D.C. 922 pp.