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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.

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Island counts and at-sea tracking suggest female Antipodean Albatrosses are doing less well at sea than are males

Graeme Elliott and Kath Walker (Albatross Research, Nelson, New Zealand) have produced a report presented last month to a meeting of the Conservation Services Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on their recent research on the globally Vulnerable Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis breeding on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island.

“Antipodean wandering albatrosses have been monitored since 1994. They increased in abundance between 1994 and 2004 at about 6.3% per annum, but since 2004 have declined: males at 5% per annum and females at 11%. The population of breeding females is now only 25% of its 2004 level. At the current rate of decline there will be only 250 pairs of Antipodean wandering albatrosses in 28 years. Coincident with this decline there has been a reduction in nesting success. The rapid drop in numbers has been caused by high mortality, particularly amongst females. The most likely cause of this decline is a change in ocean conditions which has led to lower nesting success and birds foraging in areas with a higher fisheries bycatch risk than before. A comparison of satellite tracking before 2004 and geolocator tracking after 2004 indicates a dramatic shift in the foraging range of females. They now often forage to the north-east of New Zealand and in two areas off the South American coast: near Juan Fernandez Islands and close to the south Chilean coast. Since males visit the Juan Fernandez and north-east New Zealand areas only rarely, and since they have much higher survivorship it seems possible the high female mortality might be happening in these two areas. Understanding the causes of and solutions to the high female mortality is urgently required as the high and sustained rate of decline has put this species into New Zealand’s “Nationally Critical” conservation status category.”

An Antipodean Albatross pair on Antipodes Island, photograph by Colin O'Donnell

Reference:

Elliott, G. & Walker, K. 2017.  Antipodean Wandering Albatross Census and Population Study 2017 [Nelson]: Albatross Research.  13 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 April 2017

Taking after your parents: blood chemistry correlations in Black-browed Albatrosses

Miguel Ferrer (Applied Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Seville, Spain) and colleagues have published in the journal Bird Study on the blood chemistry of breeding Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris and their chicks.

The paper’s abstract follows:

Capsule: In Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris nutritional condition is correlated between parents and their offspring.

Aims: To test resource allocation hypotheses analysing the relationship between parental and offspring nutritional condition.

Methods: We measured blood chemistry parameters related with nutritional condition in 24 parents and their nestlings in a colony of Black-browed Albatrosses.

Results: There were no significant differences in blood parameters between sexes or location of the nest within the colony, neither among adults nor among nestlings. We found a significant positive correlation between parents and the nutritional condition of their offspring, measured as urea, uric acid and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations in blood.

Discussion: These relationships demonstrate that condition of the young seems to be merely a reflection of parental condition. An interesting relationship between alkaline phosphatase concentration in adults and nutritional condition of their nestlings was found, suggesting that age of the parents would be a key factor explaining quality of the nestling.”

Black-browed Albatross stands over its chick, photograph by Ian Strange

Reference:

Miguel Ferrer, M., Morandini, V.,Perry , L.& Bechard, M. 2017.  Physiological conditions of parent and offspring Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophrisBird Study  doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2017.1314447.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 April 2017

Dual-sex playback increases response rate in Manx Shearwaters

Allan Perkins (RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Aberdeen, UK) and colleagues have published in the journal Bird Study on using playback of calls to estimate population numbers in Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus.

Capsule: Playback with dual-sex calls increases the response rate of Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus by 40–60% and reduces its daily variability, which would improve the precision of population estimates. 

Aims: To test whether playing male and female calls would elicit more responses to playback than male-only calls, reduce daily variability and the length of response rate calibration trials, and give more precise estimates. We also measured response times to playback and assessed the reliability of visual signs of occupancy at burrow entrances.

Methods: Responses to four playback call-types (male-only and three variants of dual-sex calls) were compared in repeated trials at two colonies (Ramsey and Rum, UK) during May–June 2014.

Results: Dual-sex calls gave higher response rates with lower variance than male-only calls, because females frequently replied to female calls but rarely to male calls. In simulated 3–5-day calibration trials, response rates and correction factors were up to 50% more precise with dual-sex calls. Visual signs of burrow occupancy were unreliable.

Conclusion: Playback for Manx Shearwaters should use a 25 seconds recording of male and female calls intermixed, with 10 seconds listening time for delayed responses. Census-specific calibration trials are essential for accurate estimates of daily response rates.”

 

Manx Shearwater, photograph by Nathan Fletcher

Reference:

Perkins, A.J., Douse, A., Morgan, G., Cooper, A. & Bolton, M. 2017.  Using dual-sex calls improves the playback census method for a nocturnal burrow-nesting seabird, the Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus.  Bird Study doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2017.1307940.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 April 2016

Do warm black wings help albatrosses fly by reducing drag?

Mostafa Hassanalian (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA) and colleagues have published in the Journal of Thermal Biology on whether dark upper wings in flying birds help them fly by reducing drag, utilizing albatrosses as an example.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The thermal impact of the birds’ color on their flight performance are investigated. In most of the large migrating birds, the top of their wings is black. Considering this natural phenomenon in the migrating birds, such as albatross, a thermal analysis of the boundary layer of their wings is performed during the year depending on the solar insulation. It is shown that the temperature difference between the bright and dark colored top wing surface is around 10 °C. The dark color on the top of the wing increases the temperature of the boundary layer over the wing which consequently reduces the skin drag force over the wing. This reduction in the drag force can be considered as one of the effective factors for long endurance of these migrating birds. This research should lead to improved designs of the drones by applying the inspired colors which can help drones increase their endurance.”

Wandering Albatross at sea, photograph by John Chardine

Reference:

Hassanalian, M., Abdelmoula, H., Ben Ayed, S. & Abdelkef, A. 2017.  Thermal impact of migrating birds’ wing color on their flight performance: Possibility of new generation of biologically inspired drones.  Journal of Thermal Biology 66: 27-32.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 April 2017

A very large Marine Protected Area is created in the Southern Ocean by France

France has announced the creation of a very large Marine Protected Area (MPA) around its sub-Antarctic islands in the southern Indian Ocean.  The new MPA will give added formal protection to the ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels that forage within it, especially those that breed on the Crozet, Kerguelen, Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands that the MPA surrounds. At over 1.66 million km² in area, it is larger than the 1.55 million-km² Ross Sea MPA, due to come into force in December this year, and is now the World’s largest MPA.

Following on from existing MPAs around Australia’s Heard and McDonald Islands and South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands, all the sub-Antarctic island groups in the southern Indian Ocean are now surrounded by MPAs, totalling over 1.81 million km².

The new French Marine Protected Area around its sub-Antarctic islands

A translation of the original press announcement follows:

“The order instituting a protection perimeter around the French Southern Territories' National Nature Reserve, signed by Prefect Cécile Pozzo di Borgo, Senior Administrator of the Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF), on 31 March [2017] marks the creation of the largest Marine Protected Area in the World.

At [a meeting of] the Consultative Committee for the French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve on 15 December 2016, which enabled the nature reserve to be set up with its new perimeter [with an area] of more than 672 000 km², the Minister of the l’Environnement, de l’Energie et de la Mer, Mme Segolene Royal, asked the Prefect, a TAAF Senior Administrator, to consider ways of creating a protection perimeter around the nature reserve.

In response to this request and following various consultations from 24 February to 24 March 2017, Prefect Pozzo di Borgo adopted on 31 March Decree 2017-28 establishing a protection perimeter around the nature reserve (click here).

This perimeter is established beyond the limits of the marine part of the French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve, to the outer limits of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of the Crozet, Kerguelen, Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands. The total protected area, which includes the area of the nature reserve and that of the protection perimeter, covers an area of 1 662 766 km², or nearly 15% of the French EEZ.

The order instituting the protection perimeter provides that the provisions of Decree No. 2006-1211, as amended, establishing and extending the French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve relating to reserve management bodies and those relating to environmental regulations and the management of fisheries within the marine part of the reserve, apply to the outer limits of the Southern French EEZs.

It also encourages the development of programmes to improve knowledge of the marine environment, and positions France as a key player in the development and implementation of a concerted strategy for the creation and establishment of a network of MPAs in the international waters of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

The signing of this decree gives rise to the largest marine Protected Area in the World, a national ambition formulated more than a year ago by Minister Segolene Royal in the sidelines of COP21 [2015 Paris Climate Conference] and reaffirmed on numerous occasions since then.”

In September 2008 France designated a very large Ramsar Wetland Site of International Importance (2 270 000 ha) that includes marine components ("rocky shores, estuaries and fjords") at its islands in the southern Indian Ocean (Amsterdam, Saint Paul, Crozets and Kerguelen).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 April 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.

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