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title: "Tristan Albatrosses on Gough Island get counted, one year before mouse eradication"
---

# Tristan Albatrosses on Gough Island get counted, one year before mouse eradication

The Tristan Albatross *Diomedea dabbenena* is a [globally Critical Endangered](http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/tristan-albatross-diomedea-dabbenena) species that is at risk of extinction due to the combined effects of longline mortality and chick mortality leading to low breeding success on [Gough Island](https://www.acap.aq/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1322-acap-breeding-sites-no-11-gough-island-south-atlantic-hanging-on-against-the-onslaught-of-its-killer-mice?lang=en), its main breeding site, caused by introduced House Mice *Mus musculus*. As a consequence a poison-bait drop on the island by helicopter is planned for next year to attempt to eradicate the mice.

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/T/Tristan/Tristan_Albatross_chick_by_Ross_Wanless.jpg)

 Mice attack a Tristan Albatross chick at night on Gough Island, photograph by Ross Wanless

 Researchers currently on the island have recently completed the annual whole-island count during the incubation stage of Tristan Albatross nests.  A total of 1446 occupied nests was counted in five days of surveying ([click here](https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/community/ourwork/b/biodiversity/archive/2018/02/15/1446-tristan-albatross-breeding-pairs-on-gough-island.aspx)).

 A round-island count of post-downy chicks will be undertaken in September, so that annual production and breeding success for the biennially-breeding species may be estimated.

 Read more about the planned mouse eradication project [here](https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/projects/gough-island-restoration-programme/).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 February 2018*