A Wandering Albatross chick that succumbed to High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza on Marion Island in November 2024, photograph by Rhiannon Gill

Ralph Vanstreels (Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, University of California - Davis, USA) and colleagues have published in the Biodiversity Data Journal on the work of the ACAP Intersessional Correspondence Group of Experts on Epidemiology, Disease Risk Assessment and Management.  The Group advises the Albatrosses and Petrel Agreement on issues related to the ongoing high pathogenicity H5Nx avian influenza panzootic.

Geographic distribution of confirmed HPAI events in procellariiform birds. HPAI events are with coloured symbols by species (shape and colour) and number of individuals affected (size). The total number of confirmed HPAI events recorded for each species is indicated in the legend (n). Dagger symbols (†) indicate species listed in Annex 1 of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). Data updated as of 31 December 2025 (from the publication)

The paper's abstract follows:

“High pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have rapidly emerged as a major global threat to wildlife, with severe consequences for seabird populations. Albatrosses and petrels (order Procellariiformes) are particularly vulnerable due to their long lifespan, low reproductive rates and strong site fidelity. Since 2021, HPAI viruses have caused unprecedented mortality in seabird communities worldwide and have expanded into the core range of procellariiform species, including sub-Antarctic and Antarctic regions.

In response to the urgent need for timely, species-relevant information, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) established the High Pathogenicity H5Nx Avian Influenza Intersessional Correspondence Group (HPAI-ICG), which developed the ACAP HPAI database — an openly accessible, regularly updated resource that consolidates all known suspected and confirmed HPAI events involving procellariiform birds. The database compiles information from global and national reporting systems, scientific literature, genetic repositories, government communications and direct expert notifications. Events are standardised using transparent case definitions, cross-referenced and validated by subject-matter experts and complemented by additional data on case impacts and viral characteristics. The database provides a critical decision-support tool for governments, researchers, conservation practitioners and tourism operators, contributing to the planning and implementation of HPAI biosafety, surveillance, monitoring and outbreak response activities.”

With thanks to Patricia Serafini.

Reference:

Vanstreels, R.E.T., Serafini, P.P., Giacinti J., Younger, J., Huyvaert, K.P., Wille, M., Roberts, L., Gamble, A. & Uhart, M.M. 2026.  A public database to monitor the spread and impacts of high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses on albatrosses and petrels.  Biodiversity Data Journal 14. e186836.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 19 May 2026

“Will you be Mine?”.  Buller's Albatrosses by Ellyn Bousman Lentz, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2024

Mike Bell of Toroa Consulting has produced a final report for the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s Conservation Services Programme (CSP) that gives information on recent population surveys and at-sea tracking of four ACAP-listed species on the offshore “albatross islands” of the Chatham Islands.  The species studied were the Chatham Albatross Thalassarche eremita, Northern Buller’s Albatross T. bulleri platei, Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi and the Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes halli.

The three islands surveyed were Rangitutahi (The Sisters), Motuhara (The Forty Fours) and Te Tara Koi Koia (The Pyramid).

Reference:

Bell, M. 2026.  Seabird research on the “Albatross Islands” of the Chatham Islands, Aug-Dec 2025.  Chatham Island, New Zealand.  Toroa Consulting.  20 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 18 May 2026

“Incoming”.  Young Wandering Albatrosses gather in “gams” to display and prospect for partners, photograph on Marion Island by Danielle Keys

Etienne Rouby (Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA and colleagues have published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on changes in age of first breeding in Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans on France’s Possession Island.

The paper’s abstract follows:

1.  Age at first reproduction is an important life-history trait that marks the beginning of reproductive allocation in long-lived organisms and drives patterns of life-history strategies. Demographic factors and environmental conditions likely affect age at first reproduction through multiple pathways: food resources availability and energy storage from birth to recruitment, competition for breeding sites and mate availability.

2,  Using a unique 35-year dataset of individual-based mark–recapture data from a wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) population at Crozet (southern Indian Ocean), we investigated how demographic factors and environment influence age at first reproduction. The population experienced major fluctuations, declining by 50% in the 1970s before partially recovering in the 1980s. It was also exposed to important environmental changes, including variations in large-scale climate phenomena and changes in subtropical anticyclone systems like the Mascarene high pressure system.

3.  We used multi-event hidden Markov models to estimate age-specific survival and breeding probabilities for each sex separately. From these models, we estimated the age at first reproduction through absorbing Markov chains while accounting for imperfect detection. We investigated how demographic factors (population density at birth and mate availability at recruitment) and environmental conditions (at birth and recruitment) influenced age at first reproduction through their effects on survival and breeding probabilities.

4.  Age at first reproduction declined across cohorts for both sexes from 1970 to the mid-1980s, then stabilized. Females recruited at 9.0 years in early cohorts versus 7.5 years in later ones; males declined from 10.2 to 9.2 years. Environmental conditions at birth, particularly the El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Mascarene high, influenced recruitment timing through delayed effects of natal condition on breeding probability rather than survival. Mate availability strongly facilitated earlier recruitment in both sexes, while natal population density delayed male recruitment specifically.

5.  Recruitment timing in wandering albatrosses is shaped primarily by developmental programming during the natal period rather than by immediate environmental triggers at sexual maturity, with mate availability and population density modulating these early-life effects in sex-specific ways. Given that recruitment is an important life-history event linked to population-level reproductive rates, accurate demographic projections require models accounting for cohort-specific effects under changing environments.”

Reference:

Rouby, E., Van de Walle, J., Plard, F., Delord, K., Aubry, L. M., Barbraud, C., Bonnet, T., Weimerskirch, H. & Jenouvrier, S. 2026.  Drivers of age at first reproduction in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans): Demographic factors, environmental conditions and sex-specific responses.  Journal of Animal Ecology doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70249.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 15 May 2026

Southern Giant Petrel at sea in rough weather, oil painting by Mark Price, Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for ACAP’s “Petrels in Peril” project in 2021, after a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

Madeline Hallet (School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, New York, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Functional Ecology on aspects of flight in giant petrels Macroncetes spp

The paper’s abstract follows:

1. “Wind is a major factor driving seabird movement and energetics, the effects of which are modulated by morphology. Developments in tagging technology now make it possible to test predictions from aerodynamic theory about the effects of wind on flight performance in free-ranging birds. Waves are also thought to have a strong influence on seabird movement but have received less attention.
2. We investigated the interplay between wind, waves, and morphology and tested predictions of flight theory in giant petrels (Macronectes spp.), which show greater sexual size dimorphism than any other seabird. We quantified flapping rates as a proxy of energy expenditure using accelerometers deployed on northern giant petrels (M. halli; n = 45) and southern giant petrels (M. giganteus; n = 48) breeding at Bird Island, South Georgia in 2022 and 2023. Wind and waves experienced by birds tracked with Global Positioning System (GPS) loggers were integrated with ERA5 reanalysis data to assess how flapping rates and ground speeds, respectively, were influenced by wind and waves. Using generalized additive mixed models, we predicted the spatial distribution of suitable habitat for soaring based on wind and wave conditions.
3. Both wind and waves strongly influenced flight energetics; flapping rates decreased with increasing wind speed and swell height in all species and sexes. Together, wind and waves allowed giant petrels to reduce flapping rates by 76% to 91%. Wind also influenced the speed of travel; ground speed increased with wind speed in tail- and crosswinds, but generally decreased with wind speed in headwinds.
4. Male giant petrels had higher wing loadings, and as predicted by flight theory, required higher air speeds for soaring flight and had higher flapping rates than females. Potential soaring habitat was much more limited for male than for female giant petrels, suggesting that differences in flight energetics between sexes may contribute to sexual segregation in foraging areas.
5. Our results demonstrate how morphology, wind and waves combine to influence the flight energetics of giant petrels. Understanding the interactions among these factors is central to understanding environmental drivers of seabird distribution and to predicting responses to continued climate change.”

With thanks to Richard Phillis, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference:

Hallet, M.E., Phillips, R.A., Maywar, I.J. & Thorne, L.H. 2026.  Wind, waves, wing loading and the flight energetics of giant petrels.  Functional Ecology doi/10.1111/1365-2435.70352.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 14 May 2026