On O’ahu, Hawai‘i, fledgling wedge-tailed shearwaters leaving their nests for the first time are often disoriented by lights and may become grounded due to exhaustion or collision, exposing them to additional threats from road traffic and predation. Highway streetlights on O’ahu were changed from unshielded high-pressure sodium (HPS) to full-cutoff light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights in 2016. We conducted road surveys to locate road-killed shearwaters from 2012-2019 and compared mortality before and after the change in lighting. We also accounted for three potential environmental drivers of interannual variability in fallout: moon illumination, wind speed, and wind direction. While the effects of these environmental drivers varied across years, the interaction between moon illumination and wind speed was the most important predictor, suggesting that mortality related to fallout increases during nights with low moon illumination and strong winds. We did not find the change in streetlights to significantly affect the number of road-killed shearwaters observed in our surveys. However, due to potential species-specific disparities in the behavior and light attraction of petrels, similar studies are needed before energy saving LED lights are implemented throughout the Hawaiian archipelago. More info at: Urmston et al. 2022. Quantifying wedge-tailed shearwater (Ardenna pacifica) fallout after changes in highway lighting on Southeast Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Plos One
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