The status of the Forest Fody on Mayotte (Comores)

Once, every group of islands in the Malagasy region had its own species of Foudia (Passeriformes, Ploceidae), but in recent years things have changed profoundly. Except for the widespread Madagascar Fody F. madagascariences, most of the species are more or less endangered. This paper reports on two surveys of the island of Mayotte (Comores) on the presence of the Forest Fo dy in October 1993 and March 1995. All other available observations are dis cussed in view of these results. Currently the population is subdivided in 6 sub-groups. Total population size must be several thousands of birds. The species occupies a wide variety of habitats, but it is remarkable that are as with very similar habitat where not occupied in other parts of the islan d, even when adjacent to another sub-group. On Mayotte, ill sharp contrast with most of the other islands, Forest Fodies live in rather open areas and surely not in evergreen forest. Also in 1993, blood samples were collected to analyse the population genetic structure of the supposedly isolated sub -populations, using band-sharing coefficients from multilocus DNA-fingerpri nting. Band-sharing analyses showed that all four sub-groups studied showed an increased level of band-sharing compared to open populations of various other songbirds. The between-sub-group band-sharing is lower than the with in-sub-group band-sharing suggesting a rather high degree of isolation betw een the subgroups tested. The apparently low dispersal activity together wi th the patchy habitat occupation in the different subgroups, are important factors to watch when considering conservation measures for the species.