Michelle Risi and Christopher Jones are spending their third full year as field researchers on the UK’s Gough Island in the South Atlantic.  There they continue to work for the Gough Island Restoration Programme managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).  Much of their fieldwork concentrates on the long-term monitoring* of three threatened species of ACAP-listed albatrosses that are at risk to attacks by introduced House Mice Mus musculus.  These species are the  Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos and the Endangered Sooty Albatross Phoebetria fusca.

In the first half of 2019 Michelle suggested to ACAP’s Information Officer that a World Albatross Day should be instituted to increase awareness of the conservation plight that the world’s 22 species of albatrosses face.  ACAP took up this challenge, and the first World Albatross Day will be marked globally next month on 19 June.

 Michelle Risi, Chris Jones and fellow team member Alexis Osborne (centre) with their World Albatross Day banner on Gough Island next to a Tristan Albatross chick

Michelle Risi has contributed further to ACAP’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness of ‘WAD2020’ by designing a series of free downloadable posters from her own photographs of albatrosses taken on Gough and on South Africa’s Marion Island – where she has also spent time conducting field work.  Along with long-term field team partner, Chris Jones, she has now produced this video for ACAP, for which the Agreement is most grateful.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 May 2020

*Established by ACAP’s Information Officer in his field-work days around 25 years ago.

Grey-headed Albatross on Macquarie Island, photograph by Melanie Wells

Jaimie Cleeland (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Battery Point, Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Scientific Reports on influence of introduced European Rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus (now eradicated) and extreme weather patterns on the breeding albatrosses of Australia’s sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Invasive species present a major conservation threat globally and nowhere are their affects more pronounced than in island ecosystems.  Determining how native island populations respond demographically to invasive species can provide information to mitigate the negative effects of invasive species.  Using 20 years of mark-recapture data from three sympatric species of albatrosses (black-browed Thalassarche melanophris, grey-headed T. chrysostoma, and light-mantled albatrosses Phoebetria palpebrata), we quantified the influence of invasive European rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus and extreme weather patterns on breeding probability and success.  Temporal variability in rabbit density explained 33–76% of the variability in breeding probability for all three species, with severe decreases in breeding probability observed after a lag period following highest rabbit numbers.  For black-browed albatrosses, the combination of extreme rainfall and high rabbit density explained 33% of total trait variability and dramatically reduced breeding success.  We showed that invasive rabbits and extreme weather events reduce reproductive output in albatrosses and that eliminating rabbits had a positive effect on albatross reproduction.  This illustrates how active animal management at a local breeding site can result in positive population outcomes even for wide ranging animals like albatrosses where influencing vital rates during their at-sea migrations is more challenging.”

Read a popular account of the publication here.

Reference:

Cleeland, J.B., Pardo, D., Raymond, B., Terauds, S., Alderman, R., McMahon, C.R., Phillips, R.A., Lea, M.-A. & Mark A. Hindell, M.A. 2020.  Introduced species and extreme weather as key drivers of reproductive output in three sympatric albatrosses.  Scientific Reports: 10: 8199. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64662-5.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 May 2020Z

Have time on your hands while in COVID-19-induced quarantine or self isolating?  To mark the inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June the Albatross and Petrel Agreement (ACAP) invites you to bake an albatross-themed cake while in lockdown and enter the World Albatross Day Great Albicake Bake Off competition.

To participate in the Albicake Bake Off submit an image of your creation along with a title, a brief descriptive text, and your name and e-mail address to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with “AlbiCake Bake Off” in the subject field by 15 June 2020.  No limit is placed on the number of entries per individual but each should be submitted in a separate e-mail.

Each entrant will receive a specially designed colour certificate bearing an image of an albatross artwork from the Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN)’s World Albatross Day Project to download and print out.  Category winners will receive WAD 2020 posters.  A special book prize on South Africa’s Sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands co-authored and signed by ACAP’s Information Officer will be awarded to the cake judged as the overall winner.

Three Guest Judges invited for their significant contributions to the conservation of albatrosses (and their ability to enjoy a good cake) will choose winning entries based on the following themes:

• Best presentation
• Most creative
• Morphological accuracy
• People’s choice (based on Facebook likes)
• Eradicating Island Pests (WAD2020 theme)
• Rainbow theme in recognition of global health care workers in the face of COVID-19
• Best Albicake overall

MEET THE WAD2020 GREAT ALBICAKE BAKE-OFF JUDGES

Cleo Cunningham, Deputy Head, Conserving Land and Seascapes, United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre; past Head, Marine Programme, BirdLife International

“Albatrosses face multiple threats both on land and out at sea.  World Albatross Day represents an excellent opportunity to draw attention to the issues we must address to protect these extraordinary birds, as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with each of these threats.”

Keith Springer, past Manager, Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project, Parks & Wildlife Service, Tasmania

“Albatrosses already face so many threats at sea.  On some of the islands they breed on, they face existential threats from introduced predators as well, so the populations are getting squeezed from both land and sea.  World Albatross Day is a great opportunity to highlight not only the threats faced by these normally long-lived birds, but also some of the measures that can be taken to reduce the risks to them.  Without actions to reduce fishing mortality and introduced predators on their breeding islands, we face the sad but very real possibility of a world without albatrosses.”

Tatiana Neves, Founder & General Coordinator, Projeto Albatroz; Vice-Chair, ACAP Advisory Committee

“Having a World Albatross Day is a great idea.  I have dedicated a lifetime to the conservation of albatrosses and petrels, so having a World Albatross Day, as recognition of the global importance of those magnificent birds and the threats they face, is important in increasing global awareness of the importance of actions to prevent their extinction.”

“Ter um Dia do Albatroz é uma ótima ideia.  I tenho dedicado todo uma vida para a conservação de albatrozes e petreis, e ter um Dia do Albatroz, como um reconhecimento da importância global para essas aves magníficas e das ameaças que elas enfrentam, é crucial para aumentar a consciência global sobre a importância das ações para prevenir sua extinção

And meet the competition organizers and their cakes:

Michelle Risi records the band number of an inquisitive Tristan Albatross in the Tafelkop study colony on Gough Island.  The bird was banded as a chick in 2013 and was yet to breed; photograph by Chris Jones.  Michelle made the Sooty Albatross cake on Gough Island with colleagues for a birthday

Melanie Wells prepares to band Grey-headed Albatrosses on Macquarie Island as a Light-mantled Albatross flies by; photograph by Julie McInnes. Mel's cake is actually of a white-phase Southern Giant Petrel after a grisly feed

 Michelle Risi, Gough Island & Melanie Wells, Macquarie Island, Competition Organizers, aspiring bakers and sub-Antarctic ornithologists, 20 May 2020

A pair of Northern Royal Albatrosses on their nest on Pukekura/Taiaroa Head mark World Albatross Day, 19 June 2020

As part of its efforts to raise awareness of this year’s inaugural World Albatross Day on 19 June, ACAP Latest News contacted New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) which manages the Northern Royal Albatross colony on South Island’s Pukekura/Taiaroa Head with a request to join in the ‘WAD2020 Banner Challenge’ by making and photographing a suitably-worded banner in the field.

Pukekura/Taiaroa Head is the only locality on New Zealand’s mainland where albatrosses breed.  The carefully managed population of globally Endangered and nationally Naturally Uncommon Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi can, under normal conditions, be viewed through large one-way glass windows in the visitor’s observatory run by the Royal Albatross Centre of the Otago Peninsula Trust.  However, movement restrictions and social-distancing requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in the centre being closed and has thus thwarted DOC’s plan to display and photograph a banner with a breeding albatross within the frame.

No problem for Kiwi ingenuity, as DOC Biodiversity Ranger, Sharyn Broni, who ordinarily works closely with the birds, regularly weighing the chicks and supplementary-feeding those deemed underweight, has come up with the first virtual WAD2020 banner.  In sending in her ‘banner’ Sharyn has commented:

“The Northern Royal Albatross has only four breeding sites in the entire world and they spend 85% of their time away from these sites circumnavigating the Southern Ocean searching for food.  Here at the mainland site of Pukekura/Taiaroa Head, New Zealand we manage a 250+ population but it is up to humanity to look after the world's oceans and fish stocks.”

A view of Pukekura/Taiaroa Head from the sea, photograph by Junichi Sugishita

A sentiment supported by ACAP Latest News!

A live-streaming ‘royalcam’ operated by DOC in conjunction with the USA’s Cornell Lab of Ornithology allows on-line visitors to view a breeding pair of albatrosses on a 24-hour basis in both COVID-19 and ‘normal’ times.

With thanks to Sharyn Broni, Wildlife Ranger, Taiaroa Head, Department of Conservation

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 May 2020