“Stunned”.  An Amsterdam Albatross chick yawns, after a photograph by Dominique Filippi

 ACAP’s fourth collaboration (Project #43) with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day 2023 (WAD2023)  had the theme of ‘Plastic Pollution’.  It resulted in 55 artworks being submitted.  Six works came from Apple (Chan) Resonance. Originally from Manila, Philippines, she now lives in California, USA.

Two years later, Apple has once more produced a portfolio of six artworks to mark WAD2025 on 19 June.  This year’s theme was ‘Effects of Disease”, supported by two featured albatrosses, the Endangered Amsterdam Diomedea amsterdamensis, endemic to France’s Amsterdam Island, and the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Thalassarche carteri, that breeds on islands in the southern Indian Ocean.  Apple has contributed two paintings of the Amsterdam Albatross and four of the Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, as illustrated here

  “Shadowed”   an Amsterdam Albatross head on, after a photograph by Anthony Buttet

 “Hatched”.  An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross with its chick on its webbed feet, after a photograph by Karine Delord

 “Nestled”.  An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross broods its chick on Amsterdam Island, after a photograph by Karine Delord

"Riddled”.  An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, after a photograph by Eleanor Weideman

“Becalmed”.  An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross preens its chick, after a photograph by Dominique Filippi

ACAP is grateful for Apple Resonance’s support of albatross conservation through her art, as it is for all the contributing ABUN artists over six productive collaborations in support of World Albatross Day.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 17 September 2025

An ACAP-listed Antipodean Albatross, artwork by Lenina Villela of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day, 19 June 2020

UPDATE:  VOTING IS NOW OPEN UNTIL 17h00 NZST, SUNDAY 28 SEPTEMBER: VOTE NOW FOR THE ANTIPODEAN ALBATROSS AS YOUR FIRST CHOICE FROM HERE.

The winner to be announced on Monday 29 September.

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It will soon be that time again and New Zealanders will be scurrying to vote for their favourite birds as Forest & Bird’s iconic Bird of the Year competition (BOTY2025) returns next month.  Operated in a light-hearted way, but with a serious underlying message, the competition aims to highlight the conservation issues facing some of New Zealand’s best known, and some of its least known, birds.  This year, 70 species have been chosen, many of them, but not all, considered to be globally threatened.

New Zealand’s BOTY competition has been running since 2005.  In some years it has thrown up intriguing results with hints of skullduggery and claims of foul (fowl?) play surfacing.  As Forest & Bird itself admits on its BOTY page “In 2025, we’re celebrating 20 years of ruffled feathers as everyone’s favourite event on the conservation calendar reflects on two decades of creativity and controversy.”

In 2021 the winner was not even a bird, but one of New Zealand’s only two non-marine native mammals, the Long-tailed Bat Chalinolobus tuberculatus (the other is also a bat).  Proponents argued that its lack of feathers (or presumably its inability to lay eggs) was outweighed by its ability to fly.  I suppose I could add that every albatross has a bat inside it!  Two years later the American late show comedian John Oliver punted the Australasian Crested Grebe, leading to unprecedented levels of international voting for it and allowing it to win by a mile, thereby arousing much consternation in Aotearoa (the Land of the Long White Cloud).  The 2024 competition was less controversial, with the beleaguered Yellow-eyed Penguin winning for a second time (the first time in 2019).

An ACAP-listed Westland Petrel, watercolour by ABUN artist Helen Worthington, after a photograph by Frank Valckenborgh

You will be able to cast your preferential ballot  at birdoftheyear.org.nz.  Five procellariiform seabirds are included, two of them ACAP-listed species.  They are the Endangered Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis, the Endangered Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica. the Endangered Hutton’s Shearwater Puffinus huttoni, the Vulnerable Cook’s Petrel Pterodroma cookii and the Fairy Prion Pachyptila turtur (Least Concern).

An Antipodean Albatross feeds its chick on Antipodes Island, photograph by Keith Springer

The Antipodean Albatross or Toroa already has its Campaign Team in place, with Ahaan Halwai as its Manager, saying “We are a determined group of neurodivergent individuals set on making Toroa bird of the year and prove they are the best bird (as we have always known) and WE WILL NOT STOP UNTIL WE HAVE WON!!!!”

Read more about the Antipodean Albatross, a regular BOTY combatant, and how it came second in BOTY2020 (its best position to date) from here.  The Antipodean Albatross (and all 22 albatross species) were featured by Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020 with its theme of “Eradicating Island Pests”.  View its ACAP Species Infographic in three languages from here.

So far it seems the Westland Petrel or Tāiko (and the other three contesting procellariiforms) do not have Campaign Teams touting their winning credibility.  No albatross (or any procellariform seabird for that matter) has won the competition since its inception in 2005, so let’s see if 2025 can be a turn around with the globally Endangered Toroa on the top step for once.

Voting (instructions coming soon) will open on Monday 15 September 2025 and close on Sunday 28 September 2025.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 15 August 2025, updated 15 September 2025

A feral cat kills a Newell’s Shearwater on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, photograph by André Raine

First a disclaimer.  I have lived with domestic cats nearly all my life.  The current pair have completed a decade; I am approaching my ninth.  So, it can be said we are growing old together, mostly companionably.  An aphorism I occasionally use is “A house is not a home without a cat”.  I guess dog lovers might say much the same about their pets.

But not all cats are pets, as are my two and all those who came (and sadly left) before them.  Some can be neglected, abandoned, or left to roam and become lost.  They can then be called strays.  By one definition, a stray cat is one which once lived indoors and was socialized to people at some point in its life, but has left or lost its home, or was abandoned, and no longer has regular human contact.  Of course, not all these discarded or wandering moggies have been neutered, so as is normal, they will find a mate and the females will give birth to kittens.  Without human contact from a young age the kittens will not become socialized and will grow to be wild animals.  These are described as feral cats, that will in turn breed, leading to populations that can become of serious conservation concern, especially on islands with breeding seabirds.  As a retired marine ornithologist who has worked on seabird islands my whole career, I have no love for feral cats, as I do for my current pair Annabelle and Oliver at home.  I do not see this as a dichotomy.

I started my seabird career in 1971 on 220-ha Dassen Island, off South Africa’s Western Province where I studied the now Critically Endangered African Penguin Spheniscus demersus, along with a suite of cormorants, two gulls and a pelican.  The island supported feral cats that I showed killed penguin and cornorant chicks and migratory terns.  My control efforts taking potshots with a .22 caliber rifle likely did little to the population and it took many more years before the cats were eradicated by a more concerted hunting effort.

 
A feral cat on Marion Island, photograph by Valdon Smith

Jump forward a decade or so and I became peripherally involved with the successful cat eradication programme on sub-Antarctic Marion Island.  At 32 000 ha and with inhospitable terrain and mostly poor weather, it took some years before the cats were finally removed,  using a variety of techniques,  Indeed, for many years, Marion was the largest island from which feral cats had been eliminated, only recently pipped by now cat-free Dirk Hartog Island off Western Australia – at 63 000 ha nearly twice as large as South Africa’s Marion Island.

One thing Dassen, Marion and Dirk Hartog have in common is that they have no permanent human populations and are managed as nature reserves where introduced mammals are not welcome.  The situation becomes more complex on islands where feral cats coexist with permanent human populations, of whom some inhabitants will be cat lovers and keep them as cherished pets.  For some, their affection for their pets extends to the feral animals and they may place food, such as opened cans of tuna, in localities where stray and wild cats congregate, and may even erect feeding stations on poles as advertised for sale online, above the reach of dogs and other predators.  With the bonus of free food, the feral cats will breed copiously; their offspring will be able to disperse to areas where they come into contact with native fauna, including seabirds.  Some advocates support TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release/Return) programmes for feral cat communities.  Unfortunately, there seems to be no good evidence these will lead to an overall reduction in the numbers of feral cats present, nor in their depredations of the local fauna.

Black Petrel chick on Great Barrier Island by Maureen Bennetts of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for ACAP, after a photograph by ‘Biz’ Bell

In 2017 while in New Zealand for an ACAP meeting I flew to Great Barrier Island to undertake a three-day hike so as to visit the site of a breeding population of ACAP-listed and Vulnerable Black Petrels Procellaria parkinsoni.  Feral cats are present on the island, and indeed, my host on arrival told me that he put out food for two that regularly came to his back door.  He did not appear to be overly concerned with (or that knowledgeable of?) the environmental damage feral cats are causing over much of New Zealand.  But since then there is the intention to make 28 000-ha Great Barrier cat (and rat) free.  Here’s hoping!

The problem: a feral cat gets a handout of cans of tuna

The latest positive news come from “The Big Island” (Hawaii) in the North Pacific, with the Hawaiʻi County Council passing Bill 51 that prohibits the feeding of feral and stray animals such as cats, pigs, goats, and chickens on all County-owned or managed properties.  “Bill 51 focuses on public spaces, including County parks, beaches, and facilities where populations of introduced species often congregate due to people feeding them and other inviting conditions”. The bill, assigned as Ordinance No. 25-63, will take effect from 01 January 2026.

The new ordinance should give some increased protection to burrow-nesting seabirds on the island, notably the Endangered Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis and Critically Endangered Newell’s Shearwater Puffinus newelli, both endemic to the inhabited Hawaiian Islands.

“The issue of feral cat management is especially pressing in Hawai‘i, because outdoor cats are known predators of many imperiled Hawaiian bird species. They have also significantly contributed to the decline of the Nēnē [Hawaiian Goose Branta sandvicensis – Near Threatened] through exposure to toxoplasmosis, an infectious disease that affects a wide variety of species, including the Hawaiian Monk Seal, other wildlife, domestic animals, and people.  Feeding not only supports feral cats but also other invasive animals, including rats and pigs, that damage park infrastructure and pose serious risks to public health.  Cutting off food sources on County lands is essential to reducing feral populations and safeguarding wildlife.”

However, there is clearly opposition to the Bill, with for example the Alley Cat Allies website considering it “cruel”.  It only passed after “after fierce debate and passionate testimony from the public and council members.”.  One does wonder if it will be properly enforced, as those determined to feed stray and feral cats in public places may well continue to do so, likely surreptitiously.  Threatened endemic seabirds breed on other Hawaiian islands inhabited by people and cats (with Kauai being the main stronghold for the Newell’s Shearwater) – and landowners are not restricted to feeding cats on their private properties.

It seems a major mind change is required before Hawaii’s threatened sea and landbirds can be considered safe from feral cats.  A start would be continuing to point out that a feral cat and a pet cat are really two different animals, despite them looking alike and belonging to the same species.

Read more on the Hawaii bill here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 15 September 2025

International cooperation: a translocated Black-footed Albatross chick on Mexico’s Guadalupe Island

The 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report has been produced by a coalition of leading science and conservation organizations including  the American Bird Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ducks Unlimited and National Audubon Society.  It reveals continued widespread declines in American bird populations across all mainland and marine habitats, with 229 species requiring urgent conservation action.  Information on seabirds shows that American seabird populations are in steep decline, with Hawaii and Alaska populations down between 55% and 95% in recent decades.  Threats causing declines identified include predation of seabirds and their eggs by invasive nonnative species, bycatch in fisheries, contaminants such as plastics pollution, habitat loss, and infectious diseases.

A Laysan Albatross incubates its egg in Hawaii’s James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, photographs from Pacific Rim Conservation

However, the seabird section does report more positive news for two North Pacific albatrosses as shown by the following extract:

“One promising strategy for protecting seabird populations from sea-level rise and storm-surge events has been translocation—moving seabird breeding colonies to higher ground.

A project in Hawaii—conducted by the nonprofit group Pacific Rim Conservation, in collaboration with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—moved seabirds from low-lying areas in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Tern Island, and French Frigate Shoals to high-island habitat at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on Oahu.  The translocation area on the refuge included a mammal predator exclusion fence, so the newly moved seabirds don’t fall victim to non-native predators such as rats and mongoose.  Today there are four translocated species nesting on the refuge—Laysan and Black-footed Albatross, as well as Bonin Petrel and Tristram’s Storm-Petrel.

Another seabird translocation project is offering a refuge from rising seas for Black-footed Albatross populations in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A partnership between government agencies and nonprofit groups of the United States and Mexico is moving albatross eggs and chicks from the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico. The project began in 2021, and by 2024 the first chicks that fledged from Guadalupe returned to the island as 2- and 3-year-olds—marking early success in the effort to establish an albatross colony on higher breeding grounds.

According to the Seabird Restoration Database, there have been 851 seabird translocation and social attraction projects worldwide, with a very high success rate—76% of seabird species showed a positive response to these efforts. About 40% of these projects were conducted in U.S. islands and coastal areas, more than any other country. Given the steep threats facing seabirds, more translocation efforts are needed, and the high success rate shows that these efforts are a sound investment in securing seabird populations for the future.”

ACAP Latest News has been following the albatross (and other) translocation efforts led by Pacific Rim Conservation; access previous articles from here.

Download the full report and read more here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 13 September 2025