Galapagos rail rediscovered on Floreana after 190 years

Of all the Galapagos Islands, Floreana has been the most altered by human activity, and the Galapagos rail was thought to have been driven to extinction on the island by invasive species. This small terrestrial bird, endemic to Galapagos, is a poor flier, making it particularly vulnerable to introduced predators such as cats and rats.

Charles Darwin recorded the presence of the Galapagos rail on Floreana when he visited in 1835, but it has never been detected on the island since then, despite repeated surveys. Known locally as the pachay, the Galapagos rail was one of the 12 locally extinct species due to be reintroduced as part of the Restoring Floreana project, which GCT has supported for many years.

During their most recent annual landbird monitoring trip to Floreana, scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and Galapagos National Park rangers recorded the presence of the Galapagos rail at three different sites in the island’s transition zone, an area of grassland overgrown with guava trees, far from any agricultural land. The confirmed findings include six acoustic records, two visual confirmations and one photograph. These official observations followed suspected sightings by Wilson Cabrera, a local island restoration specialist with Fundación Jocotoco.

“This is a beautiful surprise,” said Birgit Fessl, Principal Investigator for landbird conservation efforts at CDF. “There are two possible explanations for these new records: either the Galapagos rail recolonised the island, or it was never truly extinct but remained undetected due to extremely low population numbers. The latter is more likely, as these birds are not strong flyers, and their presence at multiple sites suggests they have been there all along, just in very low numbers.”

The discovery follows the eradication of invasive species that took place on Floreana at the end of 2023, led by the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD) and the Galapagos Biosecurity Agency in partnership with the Floreana community, co-executed by Fundación Jocotoco and Island Conservation, and supported by GCT, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and others. This campaign successfully removed most invasive cats and rats from the island, and is likely to have played a vital role in creating a safer environment for the species to recover.

“This finding demonstrates that ecosystems can recover if given the opportunity.” said Dr Arturo Izurieta, Director of the GNPD. “The eradication of invasive species has allowed a species we believed to be locally extinct to once again be part of Floreana’s environment.”

There have already been other promising signs on Floreana following the eradication, including the return of Galapagos doves. And there is a precedent for a natural recolonisation, with Galapagos rails recorded on Pinzon in 2022 for the first time ever, following the successful eradication of invasive rats from that island in 2012.

The next steps for researchers on Floreana will include genetic sampling to determine whether this is a reintroduced lineage or a remnant population that has managed to remain undetected for all this time. GCT is also continuing to support monitoring work on the island to measure the impact of the eradication on other species, which will help to establish when conditions are right to begin reintroducing more of Floreana’s missing wildlife.