Heard Island, photograph by Barbara Wienecke

The Australian Senator The Hon Murray Watt, Minister for the Environment and Water and the Hon Julie Collins MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry have announced that testing has confirmed the presence of the H5 high pathogenicity avian influenza (H5 bird flu) in samples collected from Southern Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina on Heard Island – a sub-Antarctic Australian external territory.

“Samples were collected after Australian Antarctic Program scientists observed unusual levels of mortality in elephant seals during a recent management voyage to Heard Island.  Testing was conducted by the CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong after the samples were securely packaged and arrived in Australia on Monday 17 November aboard RSV Nuyina.”

Wildlife ecologists taking samples from deceased animals at Atlas Cove, Heard Island, photograph by Rowena Hannaford

“Testing confirmed the presence of H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza clade 2.3.4.4b virus in these samples.  There were no observations of unusual mortality in other species present on the island, including penguins and other seabirds.  A second voyage to Heard Island, scheduled to arrive late December, will be important to gather further information about wildlife health.”

High pathogenicity avian influenza has been spreading around the islands of the Southern Ocean, affecting seabirds as well as elephant seals.  First recorded in the South Atlantic sub-Antarctic, it has more recently been confirmed on the southern Indian Ocean’s Marion Island (South Africa) and France’s Possession, Crozets and Kerguelen Islands, and now from Heard. It has not yet been reported from Australia’s Macquarie Island or New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands, both to the east of Heard Island.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 27 November 2025

“My first painting of the 2025-2026 Royal family”, artwork by Gill Winter, photograph from the Department of Conservation

A new colour-banded pair of Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi in the mainland colony within the Pukekura/Taiaroa Head Nature Reserve, South Island, New Zealand has been chosen to be the subject of the popular Royal Cam for the 2025/26 breeding season.

 The Royal Cam female for 2025/26 shows her colour bands while incubating her fertile egg, photograph from the Department of Conservation

“WYL [male, white yellow lime colour band] and BOK [female, blue orange black] who raised a chick at Top Flat Track during 2024 are the new Royal Cam pair.  They are nesting at Plateau this season.  Their fertile egg was laid on the 6th of November and will be incubated for an average of 79 days before hatching.”

A candled Northern Royal Albatross egg shows the embryo and blood vessels signifying it is fertile, photograph from the Department of Conservation

“Egg laying is nearly over, and many eggs are now being candled to check for fertility.  Candling is the term used to describe shining a light through the eggshell.  This is best done after 10 days for [albatross] eggs.  Parents take turns incubating their large, single egg for the next 2.5 months until the chick hatches.  Incubation stints can be quite short at the beginning and the end of the egg’s incubation but often become quite long during the middle as they need to find enough food for themselves and the new chick to come.”

Information from the Facebook groups of the Royal Albatross Centre and Royal Cam Albatross Group New Zealand.

Read about the intensive management procedures followed in the mainland colony here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 November 2025

 Wisdom shows her well-known red colour band Z333, photograph by Jon Plissner, USFWS

At approximately 75 years old, Wisdom, the oldest known Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis, has been seen back on Midway Atoll this month as the 2025/26 breeding season gets underway.

“Biologists [Chandler Robbins] first banded Wisdom in 1956 on Midway, after she laid an egg, and Laysan albatross typically don’t breed before age 5.  In her extraordinary lifetime, she is estimated to have produced 50-60 eggs, with as many as 30 chicks fledged!  Her arrival this year is slightly earlier than usual, though her mate from last year has not yet been observed by refuge staff.  Last [2024/25] season, Wisdom successfully laid an egg.  Unfortunately, this chick did not fledge, as not all eggs will survive to fledging every year.”

Information from the Facebook page of the Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and here.

Read more about Wisdom in numerous articles posted to ACAP Latest News over the last decade or so.

You can now follow the 2025/26 breeding season for Laysan Albatrosses on Midway via a live “albicam”.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 25 November 2025

 Maximum, mean and minimum diagonal flight initiation distances at a Black-headed Cull colony, from the publication.

Note: this publication is not about procellariiforms but it should be of interest to those contemplating using drones over colonies of albatrosses and giant petrels.

Estefania Velilla (Marine Conservation Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands) and colleagues have published open access in the journal PLoS One on results of flying drones over breeding seabirds, finding flight initiation distance varied between gulls, terns, a cormorant and a spoonbill.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Drone use has increased sharply worldwide over the past decade, leading to more frequent interactions with wildlife.  The rapid advancement of drones for ecological monitoring and research has further contributed to these encounters, which may disturb animal behavior, such as triggering flight responses in birds.  Therefore, best-practice guidelines are urgently needed to help operators and site managers minimize disturbances.  This study aimed to establish safe operating distances for seven common colonial breeding bird species: black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), herring gull (Larus argentatus), lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), Sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis), common tern (Sterna hirundo), Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), and great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo).  We assessed the effects of professional and consumer-grade drones flying at altitudes between 5 and 50 meters on the flight responses of these species at breeding sites in the Dutch Wadden Sea.  Of 1492 drone flights, 7.4% caused disturbances, defined as more than 10% of birds becoming airborne.   Flight initiation distance (FID), the distance between a bird and the drone at the moment of flight response, varied by species. Sandwich terns and common terns had the largest FID (>170 m), followed by black-headed gulls (>160 m), herring gulls and lesser black-backed gulls (>60 m), while great cormorants and Eurasian spoonbills had the shortest (~5 m).  When selecting drone flight locations, we recommend considering species-specific FID and using the maximum diagonal FID as a guideline. Disturbance decreases with altitude, so flights should be conducted at 50 meters or higher whenever possible. These findings provide concrete guidelines to inform policy and promote the responsible use of drones in wildlife research and management.”

Reference:

Velilla, E., Hijner, N., van Ginkel, A., Zwarts, M., Heusinkveld, J.H.T., Koffijberg, K., Oosterbeek, K., Stahl, J., Duijns, S. & Govers, L.L. 2025.  Best practice guidance for recreational and professional drones near colonial breeding birds.  PLoS One 20(11): e0332619. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0332619.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 24 November 2025