Grey Petrel chick, watercolour by Coleen Laird for ACAP, after a photograph by Michelle Risi

Ben Dilley (FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa) and colleagues published in 2018 in the journal Antarctic Science on introduced House Mice Mus musculus preying upon burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island, including on chicks of the ACAP-listed and Near Threatened Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea.

A House Mouse approaches a Grey Petrel chick at its cave breeding site on Marion Island,
infrared video footage from the publication, photograph by Stefan Schoombie

The paper’s abstract follows:

“We report the breeding success of four species of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island where house mice Mus musculus are the sole introduced mammal. Feral cats Felis catus were present on Marion for four decades from 1949, killing millions of seabirds and greatly reducing petrel populations. Cats were eradicated by 1991, but petrel populations have shown only marginal recoveries. We hypothesize that mice are suppressing their recovery through depredation of petrel eggs and chicks. Breeding success for winter breeders (grey petrels Procellaria cinerea (34±21%) and great-winged petrels Pterodroma macroptera (52±7%)) were lower than for summer breeders (blue petrels Halobaena caerulea (61±6%) and white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis (59±6%)) and among winter breeders most chick fatalities were of small chicks up to 14 days old. We assessed the extent of mouse predation by monitoring the inside of 55 burrow chambers with video surveillance cameras (4024 film days from 2012–16) and recorded fatal attacks on grey (3/18 nests filmed, 17%) and great-winged petrel chicks (1/19, 5%). Our results show that burrow-nesting petrels are at risk from mouse predation, providing further motivation for the eradication of mice from Marion Island.”

With thanks to Ben Dilley and Janine Dunlop, Niven Library, University of Cape Town.

Reference:

Dilley, B.J., Schoombie, S., Stevens, K., Davies, D., Perold, V., Osborne, A., Schoombie, J., Brink, C.W., Carpenter-Kling, T. & Ryan, P.G. 2018.  Mouse predation affects breeding success of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island.  Antarctic Science  30: 93-104.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 August 2021

A Laysan Albatross pair on Kauai

Author and photographer Hob Osterlund is a resident of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the founder of the Kauai Albatross Network and a Fellow of the Safina Center.  She is also a valued supporter of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement, assiduously helping ACAP Latest News with her photographs and information on interesting stories to post.  Fitting then for Hob and her compelling photos of globally Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis to be the second in a new occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information on their photographers.

Hob Osterlund with some of her photographic subjects

Hob Osterlund writes to ACAP Latest News:

“Many years ago when I was a student at Cal-Berkeley, I declared an individual major called “Ecological Geography.” My focus allowed me to take a wide range of courses, including topics related to wildlife biology and ornithology.  For my senior thesis I spent a summer backpacking in the Sierra Nevada range in California, specifically at a place called Mineral King.  At the time the Disney folks were hoping to build a ski resort there, so my topic was describing the negative impact on wildlife such a resort would have.  Entirely unrelated to my thesis, the resort was never built [the site now falls within the Sequoia National Park].  But that summer inspired my activism, my commitment and my photography.  My devotion to the craft grew deeper in the late 1970s when I happened upon a few Laysan Albatrosses (Mōlī) on the north shore of Kauaʻi.  At the time I had no idea they had only recently attempted nesting on the island after perhaps a thousand years’ absence.

A Laysan Albatross guards its week-old downy chick

“As it happens, I am a sixth-generation resident of Hawaiʻi.  Back in the mid-20th century, Martha Warren Beckwith, my grandmother’s cousin, wrote a (still-in-print) book called Hawaiian Mythology.  It was in that volume that I learned about the Hawaiian concept of ʻaumakua, which can be interpreted as meaning an ancestor who appears in the form of an animal; an ancestor who protects and warns and advises.  Such was the kind of connection I felt to the Mōlī here, I began volunteering at the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, and at one point the inestimable Beth Flint, PhD, lead a two-day course on how to band Mōlī.  The USFWS concept was to have a small team of volunteers who could monitor albatross nesting on private lands.  One morning when we were in the field, Beth suggested I start a volunteer organization for Mōlī advocacy.  Ever obedient to Beth’s wisdom, I founded the Kauai Albatross Network not long after that.  I already knew some private landowners with mōlī on their properties, so I started there."At that time I was working as a Clinical Nurse Specialist/ Nurse Manager at The Queenʻs Medical Center in Honolulu, and ran a Pain and Palliative Care Department.  One of my passions in that role was to translate the language of science into a language non-medical people could understand.  That passion followed me into albatross advocacy, so I started using social media to share tidbits of the birds’ stories.  And of course, the better the photo, the better the story.  In 2013 I contacted Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and in 2014 we launched the “TrossCam” which ended up live streaming the lives of several albatross chicks from hatch to fledge for five seasons.  During that time I also wrote Holy Mōlī: Albatross and Other Ancestors (Oregon State University Press, 2016, 4th printing, [read ACAP Latest News’ review]), and was able to include more than 20 of my photos.  From there I made a brief foray into filmmaking, and Kalamaʻs Journey was the result, winning a Telly Award in 2018.

A conversation is occuring ...

"What’s next?  I was asked by Friends of Kīlauea Wildlife Refuges to put together a book called Birds of Kilauea Point.  The book was essentially complete in 2020 when COVID-19 hit, and publication will be delayed until we can find a new publisher.  In the meantime, what brings me back to photography every day is the detail I can see through my lens that I cannot see with my naked eye.  Many bird behaviours happen quickly.  When I’m shooting a few frames per second, my brain cannot comprehend all that is going on.  When I look at the images later, it’s very common for me to be surprised by something funny, illustrative or glorious.  I take photos because I love doing it, and because I want to share what I discover.”

A Laysan Albatross chick gets soaked by rain

A Laysan Albatross chick about to be fed

For more information produced by ACAP on the Laysan Albatross download a detailed Species Assessment and an illustrated Species Summary.

First in this series is the globally Critically Endangered Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata by Ken Logan.

With thanks to Hob Osterlund.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 11 August 2021

Satellite-tracked juvenile Black-browed Albatross off Cape Town, South Africa; photograph by Estelle Smalberger

In April 2021, 19 satellite tags were attached to Black-browed Albatross Thalassarchre melanophris chicks prior to their departure from Bird Island in the South Atlantic by the British Antarctic Survey’s Black-browed Albatross Juvenile Tracking project.  The fledged birds are being tracked in near real-time using the Argos system with maps showing that the majority then travelled to the continental shelf and close inshore waters of southern Africa.  The project explains that the main aims of the tracking study are to map the birds’ distribution to determine their overlap with fisheries and the main environmental drivers of their movements, and to assess their survival rate in the critical months after fledging. The project aims to run to February 2022.

 Tracks of the satellite-tagged Black-browed Albatrosses from Bird Island as at 07 August 2021

That one of these 19 birds has now been photographed at sea some three months after fledging is totally unexpected.  The story follows with Trevor Hardaker of the pelagic tour company Zest for Birds reporting to the Pelagic birding in Cape Town with Zest for Birds  Facebook page of photographing a juvenile Black-browed Albatross wearing a back-mounted satellite tracker off Cape Town, South Africa.

Trevor writes: “Some fantastic feedback received from James Crymble, the Zoological Field Assistant for the Black-browed Albatross Juvenile Tracking project, about the bird with the satellite tracker on it that we saw on our pelagic trip last Saturday, 31 July 2021.  James says: “Astronomical odds. This has caused quite a stir here on Bird Island.  Based on the info you provided (I sent him the date, time and GPS position that we recorded the bird at), the most likely candidate is Argos ID 205662.  Device was deployed on 23/04/2021 with the chick fledging on 02/05/2021. Has travelled 10,474 km as of today (06 August 2021)!”  Trevor continues: “How awesome is that news…?!  That bird only fledged from the nest 96 days ago and it has already travelled 10 474km!! That’s an average of just over 109 km that it has travelled every single day since it left the nest!!  It’s no small wonder that we all love these incredible ocean wanderers so much!”

Read more in ACAP Latest News about the project.

With thanks to Trevor Hardaker and Estelle Smalberger.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 August 2021

Wandering Albatross in flight, artwork by Grace Innemee for ACAP

Eugene Murphy (British Antarctic Survey) and colleagues have published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution on the global connectivity of the Southern Ocean in a wide-ranging review.  Mention is made of the active dispersal of seabirds: “during both incubation and chick-rearing, albatrosses and petrels travel long distances during extended foraging trips.  For example, Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans that breed south of the APF [Antarctic Polar Front] … forage in shelf areas off South America and in oceanic waters around the subtropical convergence. Some species breeding on sub-Antarctic islands north of the APF do the opposite, flying south to forage in the Southern Ocean.”

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Southern Ocean ecosystems are globally important. Processes in the Antarctic atmosphere, cryosphere, and the Southern Ocean directly influence global atmospheric and oceanic systems. Southern Ocean biogeochemistry has also been shown to have global importance. In contrast, ocean ecological processes are often seen as largely separate from the rest of the global system. In this paper, we consider the degree of ecological connectivity at different trophic levels, linking Southern Ocean ecosystems with the global ocean, and their importance not only for the regional ecosystem but also the wider Earth system. We also consider the human system connections, including the role of Southern Ocean ecosystems in supporting society, culture, and economy in many nations, influencing public and political views and hence policy. Rather than Southern Ocean ecosystems being defined by barriers at particular oceanic fronts, ecological changes are gradual due to cross-front exchanges involving oceanographic processes and organism movement. Millions of seabirds and hundreds of thousands of cetaceans move north out of polar waters in the austral autumn interacting in food webs across the Southern Hemisphere, and a few species cross the equator. A number of species migrate into the east and west ocean-basin boundary current and continental shelf regions of the major southern continents. Human travel in and out of the Southern Ocean region includes fisheries, tourism, and scientific vessels in all ocean sectors. These operations arise from many nations, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, and are important in local communities as well as national economic, scientific, and political activities. As a result of the extensive connectivity, future changes in Southern Ocean ecosystems will have consequences throughout the Earth system, affecting ecosystem services with socio-economic impacts throughout the world. The high level of connectivity also means that changes and policy decisions in marine ecosystems outside the Southern Ocean have consequences for ecosystems south of the Antarctic Polar Front. Knowledge of Southern Ocean ecosystems and their global connectivity is critical for interpreting current change, projecting future change impacts, and identifying integrated strategies for conserving and managing both the Southern Ocean and the broader Earth system.”

With thanks to Richard Phillips, British Antarctic Survey.

Reference:

Murphy, E.J., Johnston, N.M., Hofmann, E.E., Phillips, R.A., Jackson, J., Constable, A.J., Henley, S.F., Melbourne-Thomas, J., Trebilco, R., Cavanagh, R.D., Tarling, G.A., Saunders, R.A., Barnes, D.K., Costa, D.P., Corney, S., Fraser, C.L., Höfer, J., Hughes, K.A., Sands, C.J., Thorpe, S.E., Trathan, P. & Xavier, J.C. 2021.  Global connectivity of Southern Ocean ecosystems.  Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.  doi: 10.3389/fevo.2021.624451.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 09 August 2021