ACAP Latest News

Read about recent developments and findings in procellariiform science and conservation relevant to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in ACAP Latest News.

Contact the ACAP Communications Advisor if you wish to have your news featured.

Marine ornithologist Peter Ryan is made a University Fellow

Professor Peter Ryan, since 2014 Director of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at South Africa’s University of Cape Town has this month been inducted into UCT's prestigious College of Fellows at a ceremony and dinner held earlier this month to “recognise academic staff whose distinguished work deserves special recognition” (click here). UCT’s College of Fellows was established by the UCT Council to recognise distinguished academic work by permanent academic staff.

Peter Ryan in his natural habitat: an uninhabited seabird island in the South Atlantic, photograph by Norman Glass

Peter manages the Institute’s research on albatrosses and petrels at Marion and Gough Islands and at sea in the Southern Ocean within the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP), as well as researching and publishing regularly on marine pollution.

Earlier in the year Peter was granted A-rated scientist status by South Africa’s National Research Foundation last month (click here). “A-raters” are researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs. This is the highest accolade in the NRF’s rating system to rank researchers in South Africa and the first to be awarded to an ornithologist.  2017 also saw Peter receiving the Gilchrist Memorial Medal from the South African Network for Coastal and Oceanic Research (SANCOR) (click here).

The fellowship citation follows:

“Professor Peter Ryan is the director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, a Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (DST-NRF) Centre of Excellence at UCT. His research focuses on understanding and managing environmental issues, primarily those that affect birds.

Ryan was born in the UK in 1962 and has had a stellar academic career since school level, when he was silver medallist in the 1979 Mathematics Olympiad. He obtained both his BSc and BSc (Hons) degrees from UCT with distinction and was awarded the Purcell Memorial Prize for the best zoological dissertation at UCT for both his 1986 MSc (which resulted in eight papers [on plastic pollution in seabirds]) and for his PhD (in 1992). After undertaking his postdoctoral studies at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Zoology at UCT in 1993. He rose through the ranks to professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and director of the FitzPatrick Institute in 2014.

Over his career Ryan has authored or co-authored more than 330 peer-reviewed papers (126 as first author) in 88 scientific journals. His main research themes include plastic pollution (35 papers), seabird-fishery interactions and bycatch mitigation (46 papers), seabird monitoring and conservation (40 papers), foraging ecology of seabirds and other marine predators (54 papers), seabird breeding biology (13 papers), other aspects of seabird biology (19 papers), island biology and conservation (45 papers), and avian systematics and evolution (24 papers).

He has also written 12 books, several of which are best sellers; 36 book chapters; and 193 popular and semi-popular articles. He has supervised or co-supervised 19 PhD students, 19 MSc students by dissertation, plus 59 MSc students who are conducting their degrees by coursework and dissertation. Ryan’s H-index is 53 (Google Scholar), and his work has been cited more than 11 300 times (over 5400 times since 2011). He has an A2 rating from the South African National Research Foundation (2017–22).

Ryan is without doubt a leading international expert on the ecology of seabirds (particularly on direct and indirect human impacts on seabird populations), as well as on plastics pollution in the marine environment. His many books and popular articles have also inspired a generation of amateur birders and naturalists. For these many remarkable contributions he richly deserves to be awarded a UCT Fellowship.”

 

Click here to read a review of Peter’s latest book – on the seabirds of southern Africa.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 October 2017

Trends in numbers of Scopoli`s and Yelkouan Shearwaters breeding in Malta

John Borg (National Museum of Natural History - Vilhena Palace, Mdina, Malta) has published (in English) in the italian journal Avocetta on difficulties in obtaining accurate census figures for three procellariiform species in Malta. One of these, the Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan, has been identified as a potential candidate for ACAP listing.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Maltese islands host three species of pelagic seabirds, namely: Scopoli`s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea, Yelkouan Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan and Mediterranean Storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis. Annual censuses of the breeding population of the three species have been carried out since 1983. Seabird censuses present some of the most demanding challenges of ornithological studies, and this is exceedingly so when attempts are made in counting the breeding population of underground nesting seabirds such as the shearwaters and storm-petrels. The majority of these species visit land only during the breeding season and do so under cover of darkness. They often nest in inaccessible places or nearly so. At specific periods in the breeding year, the colonies are visited by numerous prospecting and non-breeding birds, greatly inflating the number of birds in the colony.  Faced with all these variables, any figures presented from these censuses can only be zbiology and ecology of the species under study, in many cases, these censuses will result in greatly inflated figures as were recently reported for Malta, Lampedusa and Zembra. These over-estimated figures will inevitably lead to both short and long term negative implications on any conservation efforts undertaken for these species.”

Two rescued Scopoli`s Shearwater fledglings in Malta, photograph by Joe Sultana

Reference:

Borg, J.J. 2017. Interpreting pelagic seabird population numbers in the Maltese Islands. Avocetta 41: 1-4.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 October 2017

New Zealand’s endemic Hutton’s Shearwaters are at risk from lights, cats and cars

Kaikoura Wildlife Rescue has reported that a globally Endangered and nationally Vulnerable Hutton’s Shearwater Puffinus huttoni crash landed from artificial light disorientation and then succumbed to a cat attack. The species breeds only at two sites high up in the mountain range inland from the town of Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Birds commuting to their breeding sites are at risk of being downed in the town, especially on misty or foggy nights when they can become disorientated by street lights.

Kaikoura lies in the Hutton's Shearwater inland flight path

“At this stage it's difficult to tell whether this individual will make it. The head was mauled and the left eye is potentially permanently damaged. Puncture wounds are difficult to find amongst feathers. Pain relief and anti-inflammatories have been administered, the eye rinsed with saline, and the head disinfected. The bird has also been rehydrated. Later it will be fed with blended sardines and electrolytes. Rest overnight will give a good indication of where the bird is at in the morning. Hopefully it makes it and can be fully rehabilitated for release, else humane euthanasia will be the only option" (click here).

The rescued shearwater gets its damaged eye rinsed, photograph from the Kaikoura Wildlife Rescue

Kaikoura Wildlife Rescue operates a facility dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of injured and ill native New Zealand birds.

Earlier this month “about a dozen” adult birds flying inland to commence their breeding season were killed by cars after crash-landing on Kaikoura’s roads following cloudy and wet weather. “Obviously … there were a lot of adults that came down with the low cloud and fog and got run over by the early morning traffic. When the roads are wet they look like water to the birds so the roads attract the birds to land on it thinking it is water." Kaikoura residents are being asked to dim or turn off outside lights and keep their cats indoors at night. Calls are also being made for more road signage and the redesign of street lights to reduce light pollution (click here).

Corpses of Hutton's Shearwater killed by cars in Kaikoura

Read a related news story here and follow the Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust website and on Facebook to learn more of the species’ needs.

ACAP has reviewed a book recently published on the Hutton’s Shearwater (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 October 2017

Foraging changes during the prolonged immaturity period of Wandering Albatrosses

Alice Carravieri (Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Université de La Rochelle, Villiers-en-Bois, France) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Royal Society Open Science on changes in aspects of foraging ecology of immature globally Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans as they age.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Very little is known about trophic ontogenetic changes over the prolonged immaturity period of long-lived, wide-ranging seabirds. By using blood and feather trophic tracers (δ13C and δ15N, and mercury, Hg), we studied age-related changes in feeding ecology during the immature phase of wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans when they gradually change from a pure oceanic life to visits to their future breeding grounds. Immatures fed in subtropical waters at high trophic positions during moult. Between- and within-individual variations in isotopic niche were very high, irrespective of age, highlighting wide-ranging exploratory behaviours. In summer, while acting as central-place foragers from their future breeding colony, individuals progressively relied on lower trophic level prey and/or southern latitudes as they aged, until occupying a similar isotopic niche to that of adults. Immatures had exceptionally high Hg burdens, with males having lower Hg concentrations than females, suggesting that they foraged more in subantarctic waters. Our findings suggest a progressive ontogenetic niche shift during central-place foraging of this long-lived species.”

An immature Wandering Albatross at sea

Reference:

Carravieri, A., Weimerskirch, H., Bustamante, P., Cherel, Y. 2017. Progressive ontogenetic niche shift over the prolonged immaturity period of wandering albatrosses. Royal Society Open Science DOI:

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 October 2017

Northern Royal Albatrosses at Taiaroa Head fledge 23 chicks out of 38 eggs laid in the 2016/17 season in the face of plastic pollution

A total of 23 globally Endangered and nationally “Naturally Uncommon” Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi chicks has fledged at Taiaroa Head situated on the mainland of New Zealand’s South Island this last breeding season. Twenty-five eggs hatched from 38 laid by 36 pairs. Two of the 36 breeding attempts were by female-female pairs which laid a total of four eggs (one each), only one of which was fertile so at least one extra-pair copulation by a male must have occurred. Of the 34 fertile eggs laid, eight embryos died before hatching and one egg was crushed. Two chicks died soon after hatching, probably trampled by parents during nest change overs.

In te 2016/17 season 17 birds banded as chicks returned to the breeding locality as first-time visitors after spending from four to ten years at sea since fledging. The 2017/18 breeding season is set to start with 54 banded birds clocked in by 14 October and expected to commence laying eggs next month.

Among the chicks fledging in the 2016/17 season was Tūmanako (on 28 September), whose nest was followed by a live-streaming camera (“Royal Cam”), now in its second year of operation (watch the season's highlights).  An unnamed chick was the last of the 23 to fledge in mid October. Its male parent was Toroa, the 500th albatross to have fledged from the colony, in 2007, and first seen back in the colony as a seven-year old in 2014. Toroa (Maori for albatross) is the son of Button, the last chick Grandma produced in 1989. At 62 years of age Grandma was then the oldest recorded albatross in the World (click here).

Big Bird!  Royal Cam 2016/17 chick Tūmanako gets weighed while still in the downy phase, photograph from camera footage

Toroa, as a chick in 2007, photograph by Lyndon Perriman

Toroa returns to Taiaroa Head as an adult bird

Read news reports here and here and follow the Royal Albatross Centre on Facebook.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised of Taiaroa’s albatrosses consuming plastic items while at sea. Eight out nine regurgitations collected from chicks this last season contained plastic items. “Most of the time, small plastic fragments up to 5 cm wide were discovered but everyday items such as plastic bottle caps were also being found” (click here).  Previously, squid lures and plastic fishing floats have been recovered from Taiaroa Northern Royal Albatrosses.

With thanks to the Royal Albatross Centre.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 October 2017

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

About ACAP

ACAP Secretariat

119 Macquarie St
Hobart TAS 7000
Australia

Tel: +61 3 6165 6674