ACAP Latest News has been receiving daily reports by e-mail of progress with helicopter baiting the southern part of South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* as Phase 3 of the ambitious plan by the South Georgia Heritage Trust to eradicate rodents over the whole island moves towards completion.

Team Rat’s latest report for 14 March is given below in full.  With 80% of the Phase 3 target area baited and the smaller species of birds returning, things are starting to look positive for success, following a long period of poor weather that did not allow flying this and last month.

Air-lifting bait pods to the island

“Dawn this morning revealed that rare thing on South Georgia - a clear, starry sky - and Team Rat was in the air shortly afterwards, heading for the southernmost FOB at Wirik Bay to see if conditions were similarly promising there. They were.

And so started a bad day for some of the most southerly rats in the world.   We sowed 26 pods from that site, completed an area of land we're calling Cooper East, and started Cooper Island before wind and rain swept in and brought a rapid end to events by early evening. In the three weeks prior to Friday we managed just 20% of the Phase 3 target, and anxiety was beginning to creep in, but in the past 3 days we have suddenly jumped another 20%, and now stand at just over 80% of the target accomplished.”

“Today in front of Larsen House I saw a flock of four pipits [South Georgia Pipit Anthus antarcticus]- further confirmation that this charming SG endemic is coming back in strength as a result of the Habitat Restoration Project.  And, on the water not 10 metres away from the pipits, all day long I've been entranced by 15 Wilson's storm petrels [Oceanites oceanicus]. Just like the pipits, storm petrels can't breed successfully when rats are present, and this unprecedented number of birds in front of the base here at KEP [King Edward Point]  may well indicate that the species is already exploring local scree slopes for future nesting opportunities.  The birds really are reclaiming this island, even while we're still here finishing the job of removing their persecutors.”

Wilson's Storm Petrel, Photograph by Tony Martin

Baiting on the afternoon of the 15th following a night and morning of bad weather has now taken coverage up to 84%.  Team Rat reports "another one and a half days flying should see us done - we have about 45 loads of bait left to spread."  Poor weather again stopped flying on the 16th, but good weather is forecast for the coming weekend.  Let's hope so!

Click here to access Team Rat’s monthly newsletters.

With thanks to Anthony Martin, Director, South Georgia Habitat Restoration Project for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 March 2015

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

Two-egg clutches in albatrosses are rare but are not unknown for several species.  For Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses Thalassarche chlororhynchos they have been recorded at levels (0.1-1.0%) higher than for several other albatrosses.  They are thought always to be due to two females laying eggs in the same nest, and never due to a single female laying two eggs in a single season.

Chris Jones and Michelle Risi, field researchers currently on Gough Island with the University of Cape Town’s FitzPatrick Institute, have reported to ACAP Latest News on the unusual case of a two-chick brood for the species as follows.

A CatTraQ GPS tracker was deployed on a female Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (sexed assumed from culmen measurement) on a nest containing two eggs on 17 November last year.  On 3 December the assumed male was observed to be brooding two chicks.  The tracker was removed from the female on 9 December while it was sitting next to the brooding male.  The two chicks were together in the nest bowl until at least 15 December when they were photographed.  By 19 December the smaller of the two chicks had fallen out of the nest and by 21 December the nest site was deserted.

The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross two-chick brood, photographs by Chris Jones and Michelle Risi

There is a single previous published record of two Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross chicks in the same nest, with one chick dying during hatching that was observed on Inaccessible Island.  Whether the remaining, and older, chick survived to fledging was not reported.  The Gough observation is thus still the first record of the species managing to successfully hatch two eggs in the same nest.

Apparent two-chick broods have been occasionally reported for Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis but this seems to be mainly due to a neighbouring chick “moving in” and becoming adopted once old enough to walk away from its own nest site, rather than as a result of two eggs being laid in the same nest.  Their often tall pedestal nests would presumably not allow this to happen with Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, or likely, with any other mollymauk albatross of the genus Thalassarche.

Two-egg clutches have been reported for both Laysan and for Short-tailed P. albatrus Albatrosses from time to time as a result of female-female pairs.  These eggs are usually infertile and one of them is often lost early on in incubation (click here).  However, Hob Osterlund has reported to ALN: “a few years ago there was a two-chick LAAL [Laysan Albatross] nest on Kauai.  F-F [female-female] parents, both eggs candled as fertile, chicks hatched in same nest.  Neither survived to fledge.”

Two-chick Laysan Albatross brood on Kauai, photographs by Hob Osterlund

It seems probable that rearing two chicks to fledging is not possible for a single albatross pair; certainly it seems that it has not been recorded.  But if a case comes up, ALN will report it!

With thanks to Chris Jones, Margaret Koopman, Hob Osterlund, Michelle Risi and Peter Ryan for information and photographs.

Selected Literature:

Fraser, M.W., Ryan, P G. & Watkins, B.P. 1988.  The seabirds of Inaccessible Island, South Atlantic Ocean. Cormorant 16: 7-33.

Ryan, P.G., Cuthbert, R. & Cooper, J. 2007.  Two-egg clutches among albatrosses.  Emu 107: 210-213.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 March 2015

The Departament Biologia Animal (Vertebrats) of Spain’s Universitat de Barcelona has recently published a manual in Spanish to help reduce seabird bycatch when longline fishing entitled “Manual de buenas practicas en la pesca de palangre de fondo” (click here).  This best-practice manual (click here to download the PDF) has been produced by the university’s Jacob González Solís and PhD student Vero Cortés.

A Yelkouan Shearwater caught on a longline, photograph by Vero Cortés

In the Mediterranean, the problem of longline bycatch particularly affects the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus which only breeds on Spanish islands, as well the other two shearwaters that occur in the Mediterranean: Yelkouan P. yelkouan and Scopoli’s Calonectris diomedea.

Balearic Shearwater

Yelkouan Shearwaters

Scopoli's Shearwater

Photographs by Pep Arcos

A press release in English “Non-hooked birds: how to avoid seabird bycatch in the Mediterranean?” is also available. It states that “[n]ight setting; bird scaring lines; weighted branchlines that sink rapidly; fish offal and bait covered on board so it doesn’t attract seabirds to the boats; deck lights kept at the minimum level, and discards not thrown back into the sea” are some of the best strategies to avoid seabird bycatch in longline fisheries in the Mediterranean (click here).

A bird-scaring line, photograph by Vero Cortés

Two relevant videos in Spanish have also been produced by the university team:

Anzuelos sin aves: el sur del Levante español and Anzuelos sin pájaros.

The manual is a product of a scientific project undertaken at the University of Barcelona, with the collaboration of SEO/BirdLife.

Click here for a related ACAP Latest News item.

With thanks to Vero Cortés for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 March 2015

ACAP Latest News has been reporting on the innovative efforts by Pacific Rim Conservation to establish a new breeding colony of Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis by artificially hatching eggs and then hand-rearing the chicks (click here).

The project aims to create a new breeding site on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where the birds will not have to face the deleterious effects of sea-level rise that are predicted for the species’ main breeding sites on the low-lying atolls of the North Western Hawaiian Island chain.  Here are the latest updates of progress with rearing the chicks, courtesy of Pacific Rim Conservation.

4 March

“The translocation release site for the albatross chicks was outfitted with decoys and a speaker system playing albatross calls to not only attract adult birds, but so that the chicks know what an albatross looks and sounds like.  Amazingly, we've already had some adults checking out the site- this bird spent over an hour on the ground yesterday.  His leg banded indicated he is from Tern Island in the North Western Hawaiian Islands.  A great example of social attraction working it's magic.”

Decoys on the left; Tern Island visitor on the right next to a speaker 

12 March

“Today was another important milestone in the Laysan Albatross translocation project- we moved the chicks outside, from the garage to the fenced area.  Below is a photo from today showing 6 of the 9 chicks inside the small A-frame houses that we built for them to provide shade and prevent (we hope) overheating.  And yes, in addition to the decoys in the background there are 2 adult albatross visitors.  One of them landed about 10 minutes after we put the first chicks outside.  They never really approached the chicks, and we can’t be sure they actually saw them, but it is an encouraging sign.  The chicks began building their own nest cups almost right away by picking grass stems with their beak and scraping with their feet. The move outside will be good for them in many ways- sunlight, more exercise, natural substrate, and exposure to real adult albatross.  We have cat and mongoose traps just outside the fence.  We caught quite a few mongoose around the abandoned house, but none near the fence.  The chicks are getting 15-20% of their body weight in food each day, and are showing consistently good weights gains.  The oldest chick is 43 days old and the heaviest chick now weighs 2600 grams.  We expect their weight to begin leveling off at about 3000-3500 g, after which their feather growth should accelerate.”

13 March

“We had two adults hanging out and literally snuggling with the chicks today which is awesome- they are being visited daily by wild adults which is very exciting.”

The restoration project is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Bird Conservancy, US Navy, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

With thanks to Lindsay Young, Pacific Rim Conservation for text and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 March 2015