Once more, ACAP collaborates with ABUN, this time to paint Amsterdam and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses for World Albatross Day

Header design by Marion Schön, after photographs by Laurie Smaglick Johnson and Kirk Zufelt

For the sixth year running, ACAP is pleased to collaborate once more  with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN).  For Project #49 the collective’s artists are being requested to produce artworks featuring the Endangered Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, endemic to France’s Amsterdam Island, and the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri.  The artworks will be in support of ACAP’s theme “Effects of Disease” for this year’s World Albatross Day on 19 June (WAD2025), the sixth to be held.  The project commenced on 01 April and will run until 31 May.,.

Both species are at risk from Pasteurella multocida that causes avian cholera and Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (causing erysipela) on Amsterdam Island.  As for other albatrosses on islands in the Southern Ocean, they are also at risk to the Highly Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus.

Photographs of the two albatrosses are available to view in an ABUN Facebook album to guide and inspire the artists.  The two albatross species will also feature in this year’s World Albatross Day with a photography competition, posters and infographics.

With thanks to Marion Schön, Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 02 April 2025