Lancelot Richdale was a pioneer marine ornithologist in New Zealand, who studied (and published on) both penguins and procellariiform seabirds.  In his most readable biography by Neville Peat it is described how in 1936 he followed up a report of albatrosses at the tip of the Otago Peninsula, near Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island.  He travelled out on his motorbike and walked to the headland.  He later wrote: "... there on a grassy path, before my astonished gaze, sat a male Albatross incubating a large white egg".

Lancelot Eric Richdale, OBE, DSc (University of New Zealand), 4 January 1900 - 19 December 1983

Two 1949/50 publications by Lance Richdale: valued parts of the ACAP Information Officer's personal library on procellariiform seabirds

Historical footage taken by Richdale of one of the first successful nests at Taiaroa Head archived in the University of Otago Library’s Hocken Collections can now be viewed online.  The two-and-a-half-minute film taken in 1939, silent and in black and white, first shows Richdale’s wife, Agnes visiting the nest containing a small downy chick being brooded by a leg-banded parent.  Lance Richdale is then shown weighing the chick in a cloth bag.  The short film ends with a later shot of the growing but still downy chick and a passing ship in the background below the head.

Photograph from The Royal Albatross Centre

Since his discovery, and subsequent devoted care of this  first successful breeding attempt, the colony of globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi at Taiaroa Head has grown to around 50 well-protected pairs breeding each year (click here).  The colony must be the most visited group of albatrosses anywhere with close-up views to be made from a glassed observatory – and even closer views online via a 24-hour live-streaming ‘Royal Cam’ that has been set up close to an occupied nest each breeding season since 2015.

Richdale's legacy: the 500th Northern Royal Albatross chick to be reared at Taiaroa Head, photograph by Lyndon Perriman

Watch a 2016 video of albatross monitoring activities at Taiaroa Head with then on-site DOC Ranger, Lyndon Perriman.

Still keen to watch videos of albatrosses at Taiaroa Head?  Then try these links as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0sTS2An_dQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJtqvTxMQNE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8I8vCfgmIc

Reference:

Peat, N. 2011.  Seabird Genius.  The story of L.E. Richdale, the Royal Albatross, and the Yellow-eyed Penguin.  Dunedin: Otago University Press.  288 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 January 2019, updated 01 February 2019

The Fifth World Seabird Twitter Conference (#WSTC5) will take place over 9-11 April.

“This is a great opportunity to get your seabird research or conservation work out to a wide audience, cost- and carbon-free.”

The first twitter conference for seabirds took place in 2015 (click here).

During the conference, each presenter will be given 15 minutes in which to send four tweets (each of 280 characters) about their topic. By following the hashtag specific to the conference (#WSTC5) the tweets can then be seen by people from all over the world.

“The first four years of the World Seabird Twitter Conference were a great success. For example, during just the three days of last year’s conference, the #WSTC4 hashtag was used 2,667 times by 601 contributors – reaching 1.2 million people. We had 100 presenters from over 20 countries – making it a truly global event.”

Abstract submission is now open and closes on 15 February.

For more information and to submit your abstract click here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 January 2019

Kaycee Morra (Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA) and colleagues have published in the journal Oecologia on trophic declines affecting Hawaiian albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“We investigated how foraging habits vary among three ecologically distinct wide-ranging seabirds. Using amino acid δ¹⁵N proxies for nutrient regime (δ¹⁵N_Phe) and trophic position (Δδ¹⁵N_Glu-Phe), we compared Newell’s shearwater (Puffinus newelli) and Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) foraging habits over the past 50–100 years, respectively, to published records for the Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis). Standard ellipses constructed from the isotope proxies show that inter-population and interspecific foraging segregation have persisted for several decades. We found no evidence of a shift in nutrient regime at the base of the food web for the three species. However, our data identify a trophic decline during the past century for Newell’s shearwater and Laysan albatross (probability ≥ 0.97), echoing a similar decline observed in the Hawaiian petrel. During this time, Newell’s shearwaters and Hawaiian petrels have experienced population declines and Laysan albatross has experienced range extension and apparent population stability. Counting other recent studies, a pattern of trophic decline over the past century has now been identified in eight species of pelagic seabirds that breed in the Hawaiian Islands. Because our study species forage broadly across the North Pacific Ocean and differ in morphological and behavioral traits and feeding methods, the identified trophic declines suggest a pervasive shift in food web architecture within the past century.”

Laysan Albatrosses in flight, photograph by Peter Leary

Reference:

Morra, K.E., Chikaraishi, Y., Gandhi, H., James, H.J., Rossman, S., Wiley, A.E., Raine, A.F., Beck, J. & Ostrom, P.H. 2019.  Trophic declines and decadal-scale foraging segregation in three pelagic seabirds.  Oecologia  doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-04330-8.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 January 2019

The Convention on Migratory Species (Bonn Convention; UNEP-CMS) has announced that its Executive Secretary, Dr. Bradnee Chambers passed away on 23 January 2019 in his native Canada after a short illness.  Dr Chambers, an expert in international environmental governance who had been in the position since 2013, was only 52.

Tilman Schneider, CMS Associate Programme Officer, Avian Species has written to ACAP Latest News saying that the passing of the Executive Secretary has come as a shock.  The CMS Secretariat has stated “We have lost a great colleague, and a strong leader, who had a clear vision; a kind and cheerful manager who always kept his door open to all staff; and a generous and warm-hearted colleague.  He will be missed by many colleagues here in Bonn and around the world.”

Bradnee Chambers, MA, LLM, PhD (19 July 1966 - 23 January 2019), photograph by Aydin Bahramlouian

ACAP, one of seven “daughter” Agreements of the CMS Family, joins with its colleagues in Bonn in extending its thoughts and condolences to Bradnee Chambers’ family (he is survived by a daughter) and also to our CMS friends.

Those involved with the development of the Albatross & Petrel Agreement worked closely with the framework Bonn Convention, and with a previous CMS Executive Secretary, Arnulf Müller-Helmbrecht, around the time of the final negotiation meeting held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2001.  The early history of ACAP has been set out in a publication written by a number of persons then involved that inter alia details the important role played by the Bonn Convention in ACAP's genesis.

With thanks to Tilman Schneider, Associate Programme Officer, Avian Species, Convention on Migratory Species.

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, 25 January 2019