Each year since the early 1980s, a team of ornithological researchers at South Africa’s Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean has undertaken a round-island hike to count incubating Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans.

This year a combined group of five employed by the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town and Branch: Oceans & Coasts, Department of Environmental Affairs undertook the census over the last two weeks of January.  Teams of one to three persons headed out to field huts around the island and counted every occupied nest in 25 sectors to allow for year-to-year comparisons.

A total of 1787 incubating nests was found.  This compares with a range of 1760 to 2056 annually breeding pairs over the five years, 2010 to 2014.

Similar censuses of Wandering Albatrosses have been undertaken this year at other sub-Antarctic islands where the species breeds, such as Bird in the South Atlantic and Macquarie in the southern Pacific.

All occupied nests visited were checked for the presence of eggs and bands on the incubating birds.  Recording of GPS coordinates will help these banded birds being traced in future years.  A total of 119 banded birds was found outside three long-term demographic study colonies - where all breeding birds are both metal and colour-banded and nests are staked.  Of this total, eight incubating adults bore metal bands beginning with the prefix BS, denoting them as having been banded on Île de la Possession in the French Crozet Islands, some 1100 km to the east of Marion Island.

However, a previous study has shown that not all French-banded birds recorded at the Prince Edward Islands were necessarily bred on the Crozets, although some undoubtedly were, as explained in the following abstract.

“Exchange of 61 wandering albatrossesDiomedea exulans has been recorded between the French Crozet Islands and the South African Prince Edward Islands, 1 068 km apart in the Southern Ocean.  Most movements of banded birds (57) have been westwards, from the Crozets to the Prince Edwards.  In all, 18 fledglings banded at Possession Island, Crozets, have bred at Marion Island, Prince Edwards, but only one fledgling from Marion Island has been recorded breeding on Possession.  The wandering albatrosses of the two island groups form a metapopulation that ideally should be conserved as a single unit.  It is suggested that France and South Africa collaborate through the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels to effect [sic] an improved conservation status for the wandering albatrosses of the two island groups.”

With thanks to Alexis Osborne, Liezl Pretorius and Peter Ryan for information and photographs

References:

Cooper, J. & Weimerskirch, H. 2003.  Exchange of Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans between the Prince Edward and Crozet Islands: implications for conservation.  African Journal of Marine Science 25: 519-523.

Ryan, P.G., Jones, M.G.W., Dyer, B.M., Upfold, L. & Crawford, R.J.M. 2009.  Recent population estimates and trends in numbers of albatrosses and giant petrels breeding at the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands.  African Journal of Marine Science 31: 409-471.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 February 2015

Following on the activities of BirdLife International’s Albatross Task Force tackling the problem of seabird bycatch in Southern African and South American countries, the European Seabird Task Force has been established this month to work in a similar with fishers in Europe (click here).

The current focus is on demersal longlines and set gillnets, two fishing gears thought to be responsible for high numbers of seabird bycatch in Europe.  Activities are concentrating in the Baltic Sea in Lithuania (where gill nets drowning sea ducks and other diving species is the issue) and in the Spanish Mediterranean, where longlines kill shearwaters, including the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus and the Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater P. yelkouan, a potential candidate for ACAP listing (click here).

Balearic Shearwater at sea

Although recently published information suggests a larger population of Mediterranean-endemic Balearic Shearwaters than was previously thought (click here), concern is still expressed in a press release by SEO (BirdLife partner in Spain) on its conservation status, with its global population decreasing in size (click here).

Click here for the Spanish version of the press release.

With thanks to Pep Arcos for information

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 February 2015

News from the Mainichi newspaper’s website of problems facing Streaked Shearwaters Calonectris leucomelas from feral Domestic Cats Felis catus on a Japanese island follows.

Streaked Shearwater on Mikura Island, photograph courtesy of Nariko Oka

“A Chiba Prefecture-based research institute is looking for cat lovers to adopt kittens of feral cats inhabiting a Tokyo island in a bid to protect seabirds that nest there.

Some 90 percent of the streaked shearwater, a species of seabird, is found in Japan, and Mikura Island, a Tokyo island about 5 kilometers in diameter, is the largest home to the species. They inhabit the island from around March to November each year. In recent decades, the seabird's numbers have been falling mainly as feral cats living on the island feed on them.

Senior researcher Nariko Oka at Yamashina Institute for Ornithology expresses concern over the safety of the species, saying that seabirds like the streaked shearwater that breed in groups may face risk of drastic decline in number if we overlook possible causes, in the way the albatross was driven to become an endangered species.

In a Tokyo Metropolitan Government study conducted in 1978, the number of the streaked shearwater living on Mikura Island was estimated to be between 1.75 million and 3.5 million. According to an Environment Ministry study in 2007, however, the figure had dropped to 880,000, and then to 770,000 in 2012, meaning that the figure has been falling by some 20,000 a year.

Experts believe that feral cats on the island are the main cause of the declining streaked shearwater population. The number of feral cats has grown as more people started moving in and out of the island since the 1990s, and people sometimes abandoned their domesticated cats. Oka estimates the number of feral cats on the island to be around 500.

Since fiscal 2005, the municipal government of Mikura Island has captured a total of 389 feral cats, neutering or spaying them to reduce their numbers, but most of them are released on the island after their operation.”

A feral kitten captured on Mikura Island, photograph courtesy of Nariko Oka

“Oka says, ‘Leaving feral cats that have high hunting ability will put numerous kinds of wild animals on the island in danger of extinction.’

The institute is using measures taken on the Ogasawara Islands, a UNESCO world heritage site, as an example, and is looking for people outside Mikura Island who can offer new homes to those feral cats.

According to the Environment Ministry, feral cats feeding on wild animals has become a serious concern on remote islands across the country, including Teuri Island in Hokkaido, Kagoshima Prefecture's Amami Oshima islands and Tokunoshima Island, as well as the northern part of the main island of Okinawa Prefecture.

Oka says feral cat adoption is scheduled to begin on Mikura Island this fall with cooperation from the municipal government, the Tokyo Veterinary Medical Association and other parties. As a trial, the institute is looking for homes off the island for kittens as they adapt to living with humans relatively easily.”

Click here to access other items in ACAP Latest News on Streaked Shearwaters.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 February 2015

ACAP Latest News has regularly reported on Midway Atoll’s Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis, the World’s oldest known albatross calculated to be at least 63 years old (click here).  Wisdom and her partner have bred successfully in the last few years and have been attempting breeding again this year (click here).

Wisdom incubating on 7 December 2014, photograph by Greg Joder

However, news from Midway’s website is that the pair's latest breeding attempt has failed at the egg stage, as described below:

“There comes a time when nature reminds us when there is life, there is death.  As of January 6, 2015 Deputy Refuge Manager Bret Wolfe observed Wisdom, the world’s oldest known albatross, sitting on her nest without an egg, (she and her mate were both sharing incubation duties for most of December 2014).

So what’s up with the missing egg? Of the over 694,000 albatross nests counted on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge during December 2014 a percentage of those nests with eggs have not hatched and some eggs have disappeared.  The island’s natural egg predators such the ruddy turnstones or bristle-thighed curlews can actually take eggs that are not closely attended.  Cockroaches and other scavengers such as mice can quickly move in to clean house and devour shell remnants of damaged eggs.  When this happens the albatross pair abandons their [sic] nest and tries again next year.  Additionally, Laysan albatross occasionally skip a year or even two as they use their precious energy resources to complete a full molt while at sea or simply take a breather to replenish their energy after accomplishing an exhaustive seven-month incubation and chick rearing effort.  Wisdom and her mate have been sighted and they appear to be fine.  Don't forget that Wisdom has maintained a record-breaking track record for rearing chicks beyond an age that humans understood was possible. We are therefore hopeful Wisdom and her mate will return next year to start nature’s cycle of rearing chick number 30 something!”

Click here for still photos and video clips of Wisdom incubating during December last year.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 February 2015