Joe Wynn (Oxford Navigation Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK) and colleagues have an in-press paper in the journal Current Biology that provides the first evidence for magnetoreception in a pelagic seabird, the Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus.

The paper’s summary follows:

“In migratory animals for whom post-natal care is limited, it is essential that there are inherited mechanisms whereby an individual can navigate—first, to the terminus of their migration, and second, back to a suitable breeding site. In birds, empirical evidence suggests that orientation on first migration is controlled by an inherited navigational vector, a direction and a distance in which to move (the “clock and compass” model).  The mechanism and information that underlie the return to the natal breeding site are, however, almost entirely unknown.  A potential solution to this problem would be for an animal to learn the values for spatially and temporally stable gradient cues that specifically indicate the location of the natal site.  One potential cue for latitude is magnetic inclination.  Here, we use ringing recoveries made over the last 80 years to investigate whether magnetic inclination might be used as a navigational cue to control the latitude of recruitment in a trans-global migrant, the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus).  We find that small changes in inclination between when a bird fledges and when it returns from first migration correlate with probabilistic changes in latitude at recruitment, in doing so quantitatively fulfilling a priori predictions as to the magnitude and direction of latitudinal shift.  This, we believe, suggests that (1) natal magnetic inclination is learnt prior to fledging and (2) is used to provide latitudinal information when making the first return trip from the wintering grounds.”

Manx Shearwater, photograph by Nathan Fletcher

Reference:

Wynn, J., Padget, O., Mouritsen, H., Perrins, C. & Guilford, T. 2020. Natal imprinting to the Earth’s magnetic field in a pelagic seabird.  Current Biology doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.039.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 June 2020

A Light Mantled Albatross Phoebetria palpebrata (globally Near Threatened and nationally Declining) was found “in the middle of a busy intersection” a couple of hundred metres inland in Petone, a suburb of Lower Hutt on the north shore of Wellington Harbour this month.  It was then taken into captivity by The Nest Te Kōhanga animal hospital at New Zealand’s Wellington Zoo where it was found to be suffering from a thin body condition, weighing only 1.6 kg, and dehydration (click here).

The bird “received supportive care, pain relief and fluids as [it was] very weak and underweight.  Yesterday we did a full health check, including X-rays and blood tests. Since his arrival, he’s much stronger, brighter and has gained weight thanks to the amazing work of our Vet team.”  However, the bird did not survive: “We're sad to report that the albatross we were caring for at The Nest Te Kōhanga passed away … our Vet team conducted a post mortem and found that the cause of death was a blockage at the exit of the stomach, caused by two small pieces of plastic.  Due to the obstruction, the bird wasn’t able to absorb any nutrients from his food and that was likely causing his emaciation.”  Information from Wellington Zoo’s Facebook page.

It has been suggested the larger item found in the albatross stomach is a rubber ring used for docking the tails of lambs

Ingestion of plastic items, sometimes leading to death, has been reported previously for a number of albatross species, notably for the Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis of the North Pacific.  Watch a video of a Southern Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora that died after swallowing a 500-ml plastic bottle – as previously reported in ACAP Latest News.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 June 2020

At the Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee (AC11) held in Florianópolis, Brazil during May 2019, Tatiana Neves, the founder and General Coordinator of the Brazilian NGO, Projeto Albatroz and Vice Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee, sat down with ACAP’s honorary Information Officer to chat informally about the history of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.  The 13 and a half-minute video comes with Portuguese subtitles.  For detailed information on ACAP’s early history, including the activities that led to it coming into force, consult the publication referenced below.

Tatiana Neves and John Cooper in Florianópolis, Brazil at the Eleventh Meeting of ACAP’s Advisory Committee

Tatiana Neves, do Projeto Albatroz, entrevista o oficial de informações da ACAP sobre a história do Acordo

Na décima primeira reunião do Comitê Consultivo da ACAP (AC11), realizada em Florianópolis, Brasil em maio de 2019, Tatiana Neves, fundadora e coordenadora geral da ONG brasileira, Projeto Albatroz, sentou-se com o oficial de informações honorário da ACAP para conversar informalmente sobre a história do Acordo de Albatroz e Petrel, resultando no vídeo a seguir.

With thanks to Projeto Albatroz.

Reference:

Cooper, J., Baker, G.B., Double, M.C., Gales, R., Papworth, W., Tasker, M.L. & Waugh, S.M. 2006.  The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels: rationale, history, progress and the way forward.  Marine Ornithology 34: 1-5.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 June 2020

+

Wandering Albatross in the Drake Passage, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Thomas Clay (School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the Journal of Animal Ecology on aspects of flight behaviour in relation to wind by incubating Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“·  In a highly dynamic airspace, flying animals are predicted to adjust foraging behaviour to variable wind conditions to minimize movement costs.

• Sexual size dimorphism is widespread in wild animal populations, and for large soaring birds which rely on favourable winds for energy‐efficient flight, differences in morphology, wing loading and associated flight capabilities may lead males and females to respond differently to wind. However, the interaction between wind and sex has not been comprehensively tested.
• We investigated, in a large sexually dimorphic seabird which predominantly uses dynamic soaring flight, whether flight decisions are modulated to variation in winds over extended foraging trips, and whether males and females differ.
• Using GPS loggers we tracked 385 incubation foraging trips of wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans , for which males are c . 20% larger than females, from two major populations (Crozet and South Georgia). Hidden Markov models were used to characterize behavioural states—directed flight, area‐restricted search (ARS) and resting—and model the probability of transitioning between states in response to wind speed and relative direction, and sex.
• Wind speed and relative direction were important predictors of state transitioning. Birds were much more likely to take off (i.e. switch from rest to flight) in stronger headwinds, and as wind speeds increased, to be in directed flight rather than ARS. Males from Crozet but not South Georgia experienced stronger winds than females, and males from both populations were more likely to take‐off in windier conditions.
• Albatrosses appear to deploy an energy‐saving strategy by modulating taking‐off, their most energetically expensive behaviour, to favourable wind conditions. The behaviour of males, which have higher wing loading requiring faster speeds for gliding flight, was influenced to a greater degree by wind than females. As such, our results indicate that variation in flight performance drives sex differences in time–activity budgets and may lead the sexes to exploit regions with different wind regimes.”

Reference:

Clay, T.A., Joo, R., Weimerskirch, H., Phillips, R.A., den Ouden, O., Basille, M., Clusella‐Trullas, S., Assink, J.D. & Patrick, S.C. 2020.  Sex‐specific effects of wind on the https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/environmental-sciences/ a sexually dimorphic soaring bird.  Journal of Animal Ecology doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13267.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 June 2020