ACAP Latest News has previously reported on a Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis (Near Threatened) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai that survived an attack by dogs as a chick in 2012.  Following rehabilitation and release by Save our Shearwaters (SOS) the bird, identified by its band A432,  was seen back on the island in the 2017/18 season when it bred successfully (click here).

A432 checks out her newly-laid egg in December 2017, photograph by Hob Osterlund

News is now in from SOS that the bird has returned for its second breeding attempt, with its 2017/18 mate, and they are incubating a new egg.  ACAP Latest News wishes A432 a long life and successful breeding career.

View a video clip of A432 swimming vigorously in the SOS conditioning pool while undergoing rehabilitation.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 February 2019

Rachael Sagar (School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand) and colleagues show in the open-access journal Global Ecology and Conservation that best-practice translocation techniques do not alter stress reactivity or development in globally Near Threatened Mottled Petrel Pterodroma inexpectata chicks in New Zealand.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The order Procellariiformes, or albatross and petrels, face declining populations and many species hold threatened species status. Translocations of petrel chicks are increasingly recognised as a powerful conservation tool with multiple benefits: restoring species to their former range, restoring lost land-sea ecological linkages and ‘spreading the risk’ for at-risk species. However, translocations are stressful events for chicks. Petrel chicks are able to perceive and respond to stressors from hatching at a level comparable to adults. Consequently, if chronic stress is induced in petrel chicks by translocation, it may result in energy divergence away from growth and condition, with potentially ongoing negative effects throughout the birds' lives. The aim of this research was to define how translocation impacts stress reactivity and development in petrel chicks and to use this information to guide best-practice for petrel translocations.

Mottled petrels (Pterodroma inexpectata) are a target for major translocation-restoration programmes across New Zealand. We measured total corticosterone from mottled petrel chicks at regular intervals coinciding with key translocation events from two groups: one that underwent translocation according to current best practice (Translocation group), and a group that remained in the natal colony (Control group). Growth, weight and fledging parameters of the Translocation group were compared against a multi-year source colony average. We found there was no difference in stress reactivity between Translocation and Control chicks, or development between Translocation and chicks at the source colony. Petrel translocation practitioners may proceed in the knowledge that current practices did not induce a state of chronic stress or alter stress reactivity in mottled petrel chicks, and therefore are unlikely to negatively impact post-fledging survival, and their capacity to establish viable colonies. However, we caution that these results may not apply to other petrel species with different life-history strategies to mottled petrels, and encourage testing in a wider range of species.”

Mottled Petrel and chick

Reference:

Sagar, R.L., Mitchell, M., Rayner, M.J., Stanley, M.C. & Dunphy, B.J. 2019  Maximising success: translocation does not negatively impact stress reactivity and development in petrel chicks.  Global Ecology and Conservation doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00508.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 February 2019

Lindsay Young (Pacific Rim Conservation, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the journal The Condor Ornithological Applications on deploying automatic acoustic “song” recorders at selected sites in the mountains of the Hawaiian island of Hawaii and unexpectedly detecting the presence of globally threatened Hawaiian Petrels Pterodroma sandwichensis (Endangered) and Newell’s Shearwaters Puffinus newelli (Critically Endangered).

Newell's Shearwater, photograph by Lindsay Young

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Hawaii’s only 2 endemic seabirds, Newell’s Shearwater (Puffinus auricularis newelli) and Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), are listed under the United States Endangered Species Act. Threats to both species include light attraction and fallout, collisions with power lines and other structures, predation by invasive animals, and habitat degradation. Both species were assumed to be extirpated from the island of Oahu despite limited survey effort. We used survey data from Kauai (both species) and Maui (Hawaiian Petrel only) to model suitable habitat and light conditions. We then projected this model onto Oahu to identify potential survey sites. From April to September of 2016–2017, we deployed automated acoustic recording units at 13 potentially suitable sites across Oahu. We detected Newell’s Shearwaters at 2 sites; one on the leeward slopes of Mount Kaala in the Waianae Mountains and another at Poamoho in the Koolau Mountains. We detected Hawaiian Petrels at one location on the windward slope of Mount Kaala. All 3 sites were in nearly intact native forest with steep slopes. The frequency of detections at these sites suggests that both species are regularly prospecting on Oahu and potentially could be breeding there. If they are breeding, these individuals could represent missing links in the population connectivity of both species among islands. Protecting any remnant breeding populations would be of high conservation value given their recent population declines.”

Read popular articles on the paper:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/aosp-pop011519.php?fbclid=IwAR0E4KBZPJ4oNauD8UMY7VupOVkfPdBIr3tjt77wuBxOo8vQXTF7X-Ycv2s

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/01/scientists-surprised-to-find-endangered-seabirds-on-oahu/?fbclid=IwAR1e6q5e87N-HitrZLMVce4VMWPoGfD-Up8-u7XEGJkaBS_lJhJQvW8L3X8

https://www.courthousenews.com/evidence-of-endangered-hawaiian-seabirds-found-on-oahu/?fbclid=IwAR3Y1uAOiY2X1BG-BuxCWEy7IYZ1TESrK4-1xoKXzukDF-XM5bAppNttBUE

Song recorder on Mount Kaala, Waianae Mountains, Oahu that detected Newell’s Shearwaters,  photograph by Lindsay Young

Reference:

Young, L.C., VanderWerf, E.A., McKown, M., Roberts, P., Schlueter, J., Vorsino, A. &  Sischo, D. 2019.  Evidence of Newell’s Shearwaters and Hawaiian Petrels on Oahu, Hawaii.  The Condor Ornithological Applications 121.  doi.org/10.1093/condor/duy004.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 January 2019

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