Tracks of foraging trips by Light-mantled Albatrosses (LMA) and Sooty Albatrosses (SA) during incubation from multiple colonies across their breeding range. Study colonies indicated by red diamonds.  From the publication

Lily Bentley (Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the Journal of Biogeography on the at-sea distributions of Sooty Phoebetria fusca and Light-mantled P. palpebrate Albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Aim:  Competition is often proposed to drive niche segregation along multiple axes in speciose communities. Understanding spatial partitioning of foraging areas is particularly important in species that are constrained to a central place. We present a natural experiment examining variation in habitat preferences of congeneric Southern Ocean predators in sympatry and allopatry. Our aim was to ascertain consistency of habitat preferences within species, and to test whether preferences changed in the presence of the congener.

Location:  Southern Hemisphere.

Taxon:  Multiple colonies of both species within the genus Phoebetria (sooty albatrosses).

Methods: The two Phoebetria albatrosses breed on islands located from ~37–55°S – sooty albatrosses (P. fusca) in the north and light-mantled albatrosses (P. palpebrata) in the south – with sympatric overlap at locations ~46–49°S. We analysed GPS and PTT tracks from 87 individuals and multiple remotely sensed environmental variables using GAMs, to determine and compare the key factors influencing habitat preference for each species at each breeding colony.

Results:  While foraging habitat preferences are consistent in light-mantled albatrosses, there is divergence of preferences in sooty albatrosses depending on whether they are in sympatry with their congener or in allopatry.

Main Conclusions:  This study represents the most comprehensive work on this genus  to date and highlights how habitat preferences and behavioural plasticity may influence species distributions under different competitive conditions.”

Reference:

Bentley, L.K., Phillips, R.A., Carpenter-Kling, T., Crawford, R.J.M., Cuthbert, R.J., Delord, K., Dilley, B.J., Makhado, A.B., Miller, P.L, Oppel, S., Pistorius, P., Ryan, P.G., Schoombie, S., Weimerskirch, H. & Manica, A. 2024.  Habitat preferences of Phoebetria albatrosses in sympatry and allopatry.  Journal of Biogeography DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14966.

05 June 2024

Osbert Salvin FRS (25 February 1835 - 1 June 1898)

Salvin’s Albatross Thalassarche salvini was named after the 19th Century English ornithologist and entomologist Osbert Salvin FRS by Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1893 (as Thalassogeron salvini sp. nov.).  Rothschild renamed the bird, previously known as the Shy Albatross T. cauta, because “In coloration this species is apparently greyer on the head and neck, the dark loral mark in front of the eye being very conspicuous” (click here and see below).

A Salvin’s Albatross on its nest on the Western Chain, Snares Islands, photograph by Paul Sagar

In 1874 Salvin was appointed as the first Strickland Curator at the University of Cambridge; three years previously he had become editor of the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) journal The Ibis, a position he held for a decade  He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and also of the Linnean, Zoological and Entomological Societies, and at the time of his death was Secretary of the BOU.  The Godman-Salvin Medal, an award instituted by the BOU in 1919 as “a signal honour for distinguished ornithological work”, is named after him and Frederick DuCane Godman.  An interesting connection is that the medal was awarded over a century after Salvin’s death to the well-known albatross researcher and conservationist John P. Croxall CBE, FRS in 2004, who was actively involved with ACAP in its early years and chaired BirdLife International’s Global Seabird Programme.

A signed photograph of Osbert Salvin in his later years

The globally Vulnerable and Nationally Critical Salvin’s Albatross is endemic to New Zealand, where it breeds on the sub-Antarctic Bounty Islands and the Snares Western Chain with an estimated total breeding population of around 52 000 pairs.  Alternative names appearing in the literature for Salvin’s Albatross include Bounty Island Albatross and Grey-backed Albatross (or Mollymawk), although both seem to be little used.Salvin’s Albatross, by Dutch illustrator Johannes Gerardus Keulemans, from A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Buller

This is the second in an occasional series that considers how eponymously named ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels came to be named.  The first in the series addressed Buller’s Albatross T. bulleri.  The next in the series will be the on Black or Parkinson’s Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni.

Reference:

Rothschild, W. 1893.  THALASSOGERON SALVINI, sp. nov.  Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 1(10): lviii.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 04 June 2024

Mercury levels of body feathers of Black-browed Albatrosses (pictured) were tested as part of the study. Photo by Richard Phillips

William F. Mills (Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, UK) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology on variations in mercury levels in albatrosses and petrels in the South Atlantic.

Figure 1 from the paper: Boxplots of total Hg concentrations (µg g−1 dw) in body feathers of albatrosses and petrels sampled at Bird Island, South Georgia. Species abbreviations are as follows: BBA = black-browed albatross Thalassarche melanophris; NGP = northern giant petrel Macronectes halli; SGP = southern giant petrel M. giganteus; WA = wandering albatross Diomedea exulans; WCP = white-chinned petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis. Samples were collected from southern giant petrels in the 2011/2012 breeding season and from all other species in 2014/2015. Species sharing superscript letters are not significantly different according to post-hoc Tukey’s HSD tests. Boxplots show medians (horizontal lines), interquartile range (IQR; boxes), the lowest and highest values within 1.5 × IQR (whiskers) and outliers (black points)

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Mercury (Hg) is an environmental contaminant that can negatively impact the health of humans and wildlife. Albatrosses and large petrels show some of the highest levels of Hg contamination among birds, with potential repercussions for reproduction and survival. Here, body feather total Hg (THg) concentrations were determined in breeding adults of five species of albatrosses and large petrels in the foraging guild at South Georgia during the mid-2010s. We tested the effects of species, sex and trophic ecology (inferred from stable isotopes) on THg concentrations and compared our results with published values from past decades. Feather THg concentrations differed significantly among species (range: 1.9–49.6 µg g−1 dw), and were highest in wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans, intermediate in black-browed albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris and northern giant petrels Macronectes halli, and lowest in southern giant petrels M. giganteus and white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis. Females were more contaminated than males in all species, potentially due to differences in distributions and diet composition. Across species, THg concentrations were not correlated with feather δ13C or δ15N values, implying that species effects (e.g., breeding and moulting frequencies) may be more important than trophic effects in explaining feather THg concentrations in this foraging guild. Within species, the only significant correlation was between THg and δ13C in wandering albatrosses, which could reflect higher Hg exposure in subtropical waters. Comparisons with THg concentrations from past studies, which reflect contamination from 10 to > 60 years ago, revealed considerable annual variation and some evidence for increases over time for wandering and black-browed albatrosses since before 1950 and from the late 1980s, respectively.”

Reference:

Mills, W.F., Bustamante, P., Ramírez, F. et al. 2024.  Mercury Concentrations in Feathers of Albatrosses and Large Petrels at South Georgia: Contemporary Patterns and Comparisons with Past Decades.  Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 86: 363-374 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-024-01067-9

03 June 2024

A trapped Norway Rat on Amsterdam Island, photograph by Thomas Goisque

The eradication of Norway Rats Rattus norvegicus and House Mice Mus musculus has commenced in earnest on France’s sub-Antarctic Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean.  Preparations on the island by the project RECI (Restauration des écosystèmes insulaires de l’océan Indien; Restoration of Insular Ecosystems of the Indian Ocean) started around April this year, with the aerial drop of rodenticide cereal bait due to have commenced before the end of May, according to the Facebook page of Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF).

Collecting apples in the Cratère Antonelli, photograph by Lucie Pichot

Test loading the bucket, photograph by Lucie Pichot

Initial activities have included setting up photographic traps, installing grids to guide manual bait spreading in and around the Martin-de-Viviès scientific station and at Point Benedict, collecting apples in the Cratère Antonelli to limit a food source for rodents, and a field test of loading the bait spreader.

A House Mouse feeds on a fruit of the dwarf tree Phylica arborea on Amsterdam Island, photograph by Florian Leemann

Amsterdam Island’s Norway Rats have been suspected of being a carrier for the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, responsible for avian cholera which kills chicks of the globally Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri, on the island, of which two- thirds of the world population breeds on Amsterdam’s Entrecasteaux Cliffs.

Already gone?  Feral cats on Amsterdam Island have been a target of RECI by trapping and shooting, photograph by Mathias Régnier

Read more about the Amsterdam eradication here, here and here.  “Eradicating Island Pests” was ACAP's theme for the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June 2020.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 31 May 2024