Community attitudes and support for the restoration of a cryptic seabird in a peopled landscape

Abstract Ecological restoration projects aim to facilitate species recovery, including the reintroduction and recolonisation of extirpated species. In the case of highly mobile species, restoring habitat within the species' historic range can lead to natural recolonisation. Ecological restoration projects that aim to attract or reintroduce wildlife might therefore be treated similar to conservation translocations and should consider social acceptability. Negative attitudes towards a species have been associated with an increased likelihood of human–wildlife conflict or conflict over management and the failure of reintroduction efforts. Procellarids are a group of birds typically found in large numbers only on uninhabited islands, but grey‐faced petrel/ōi ( Pterodroma gouldi ) is one of the few burrowing seabirds that still breed near human settlements in Aotearoa New Zealand. Following habitat restoration, relic grey‐faced petrel colonies are beginning to expand in the Waitākere Ranges/Te Wao Nui a Tiriwa within the city of Auckland, providing a case of unplanned recovery in a peopled landscape. This study conducted an online survey of 426 respondents from the Waitākere Ranges to understand local bird general knowledge alongside specific attitudes towards restoring grey‐faced petrel. The survey focused on understanding support for habitat management actions that might accelerate grey‐faced petrel recovery in the Waitākere Ranges, adapting conservation translocation social feasibility guidelines in a peopled landscape. Respondents generally held positive views towards grey‐faced petrel despite exhibiting low levels of knowledge about the species. Of habitat management actions, support for increased introduced mammalian predator control was high, whereas support for actions requiring human behaviour change or imposing restrictions on freedoms was lower, highlighting a potential human–human conflict. Respondents who owned pets (cats or dogs) and those with a less positive attitude towards grey‐faced petrel were generally less supportive of behaviour change. This study found that local general bird knowledge, rather than specific knowledge of grey‐faced petrel, positively predicted attitudes towards the species. Although our respondent pool was demographically biased, which may limit generalisability, our research suggests that general biodiversity knowledge in the public may be sufficient for enabling the successful reintroduction of novel species rather than specific knowledge of the reintroduced species. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.