---
title: "Featuring ACAP-listed species and their photographers: the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross by Christopher Jones"
---

# Featuring ACAP-listed species and their photographers: the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross by Christopher Jones

 ![Chris Jones 10](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Atlantic_Yellow_nosed/Chris_Jones_10.jpg)*An Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross broods its chick under a*Phylica*tree on Gough Island*

 **NOTE: ** This is the fourth in an occasional series that aims to feature photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Christopher Jones writes about the ACAP-listed and globally [Endangered](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/atlantic-yellow-nosed-albatross-thalassarche-chlororhynchos/text) Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, a species he has studied on [Gough Island](https://acap.aq/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1371-acap-breeding-sites-no-27-sub-antarctic-marion-island-a-research-laboratory-for-albatrosses-and-petrels) in the South Atlantic.

 ![                               ](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Atlantic_Yellow_nosed/Chris_Jones_7.jpg)   
*Chris Jones descends a coastal cliff on Gough*

 I grew up in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, spending a good chunk of my formative years visiting national parks where I developed an appreciation of the natural world.  This drove me to study Zoology and Ecology at the Universities of [Pretoria](https://www.up.ac.za/) and [KwaZulu-Natal](https://ukzn.ac.za/).  I did not really know much about pelagic seabirds until one of my lecturers, Prof. Marthan Bester, gave a presentation about [Marion](https://acap.aq/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1371-acap-breeding-sites-no-27-sub-antarctic-marion-island-a-research-laboratory-for-albatrosses-and-petrels) and Gough Islands, where South Africa operates weather stations.  After learning about these far-flung places, I was determined to visit them as a researcher.

 ![Chris Jones 2](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Atlantic_Yellow_nosed/Chris_Jones_2.jpeg)   
*Losing its down: an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross chick*

 Once I completed my undergraduate studies, I was very fortunate to take up a position as a field biologist on Gough Island from 2014 to 2015.  I must admit that before heading down to Gough for the first time, I was most excited about penguins and seals.  But during my first walkabout on the island, the very first animal I encountered was an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross.  My first albatross up close on land!  Seeing their exceptional beauty, I soon became far more interested in albatrosses and petrels.  This first year on Gough was a life-changing experience for me.  During this time, part of my job was to closely monitor the breeding cycle of several seabird species, including Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, from egg laying to chicks fledging.  It was an incredible experience being able to follow their cycles over a whole year.  Amidst this fieldwork, I also collected data for my M.Sc. dissertation, supervised by Prof. Peter Ryan ([FitzPatrick Institute](http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/), University of Cape Town), on the comparative ecology of Broad-billed *Pachyptila vittata* ([Least Concern](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22698106)) and globally [Endangered](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/macgillivrays-prion-pachyptila-macgillivrayi/text) MacGillivray’s *P*. *macgillivrayi* Prions breeding sympatrically on Gough Island.

  ![Chris Jones 5](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Atlantic_Yellow_nosed/Chris_Jones_5.jpeg)*A rare occurrence: attempting to raise two chicks*

 While writing up my M.Sc. I also worked on several remote islands in the Seychelles from 2015 to 2017 and as a seabird researcher on Marion Island from 2017 to 2018.  Then in 2018 I returned to Gough Island as Senior Field Biologist for the Gough Island Restoration Programme ([GIRP](https://www.goughisland.com/)); a mouse-eradication project run by the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ([RSPB](https://www.rspb.org.uk/)).  This time I spent two years on Gough until 2020, focusing on collecting pre-eradication baseline demographic data for seabirds, land birds and terrestrial invertebrates.  The eradication project was planned to be completed in 2020 but was unfortunately postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.  So, I re-joined the project in 2021, involved with establishing captive founder populations for the endemic Gough Finch or Bunting *Rowettia goughensis* ([Critically Endangered](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/gough-finch-rowettia-goughensis)) and Gough Moorhen *Gallinula comeri* ([Vulnerable](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/Gough-Moorhen)), which were at risk to non-target poisoning, as well as being involved in the baiting phase of the operation.  I hope to re-visit Gough in a few years’ time as see the ecosystem flourishing in the absence of invasive House Mice.  Until then I plan to continue island hopping around the world and contributing to the conservation of these special ecosystems

 ![Chris Jones 9](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Atlantic_Yellow_nosed/Chris_Jones_9.jpg)   
*Close to departure: an Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross fledgling spreads its wings close to the cliff edge  
![Chris Jones 3](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/A/Atlantic_Yellow_nosed/Chris_Jones_3.jpeg)  
 Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses are truly beautiful birds  
Photographs by Chris Jones*

 **Selected Scientific Publications:**

 Jones, C.W. P. 2018.  [*Comparative ecology of Pachyptila species breeding sympatrically at Gough Island*](https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/29646?show=full).  M,Sc. thesis.  University of Cape Town.  81 pp.

 Jones, C.W., Phillips, R.A., Grecian, W.J. & Ryan, P.G. 2020.  Ecological segregation of two superabundant, morphologically similar, sister seabird taxa breeding in sympatry.  [*Marine Biology 167:*167: 1-16](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-020-3645-7).

 Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M. & Bester, M.N. 2020.  Local extinction imminent for southern elephant seals *Mirounga leonina* at their northernmost breeding site, Gough Island – South Atlantic Ocean.  [*Polar Biology * 43: 893-897](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-020-02679-2).

 Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M., Cleeland, J. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  First evidence of mouse attacks on adult albatrosses and petrels breeding on sub-Antarctic Marion and Gough Islands.  [*Polar Biology* 42: 619 -623](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-018-02444-6).

 Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M., Osborne, A.M. *et al*. 2020.  Abundance, distribution and breeding success of the endemic Gough Island Finch *Rowettia goughensis* between 2009 and 2018.  [*Emu - Austral Ornithology * 120: 230-238](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01584197.2020.1773859).

 Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M., Osborne, A.M., Ryan, P.G. & Oppel, S. 2021.  Mouse eradication is required to prevent local extinction of an endangered seabird on an oceanic island.  [*Animal Conservation* 24: 637-645](https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/acv.12670).

 Risi, M.M., Jones, C.W., Osborne, A.M., Steinfurth, A. & Oppel, S. 2021.  Southern Giant Petrels *Macronectes giganteus* depredating breeding Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses *Thalassarche chlororhynchos* on Gough Island. [*Polar Biology * 44: 593-599](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00300-021-02810-x).

 *Christopher Jones, 07 September 2021*