Rowan Mott and Rohan Clarke (School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia) have published in the journal Emu - Austral Ornithology on geographic biases with studying seabirds at sea.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The distribution of wildlife informs conservation planning. In marine systems, spatial information for seabirds is acquired primarily using vessel-based at-sea survey, aerial survey or animal-borne tracking devices. Many factors contribute to geographic biases in marine spatial research and we use a structured database search to review global patterns resulting from these biases. Although survey effort has been substantial, many large marine sectors were poorly represented. Poor representation often coincided spatially with hotspots of seabird species richness or areas experiencing high cumulative human impact, particularly in southern hemisphere and equatorial regions. Therefore, future seabird research priorities should reflect high species-richness areas including the south-west Pacific, particularly waters surrounding New Zealand. Furthermore, under-represented areas of Asia, and the Atlantic coasts of South America and Africa require greater research effort because of high cumulative human impacts in these areas. National gross domestic product (GDP) was positively related to the number of papers a country produced (determined by the first author’s address). This is indicative of constraints imposed by inherent costs of marine research. We recommend international collaboration between scientists from high-GDP nations with those in developing countries to address this. Further uptake of platforms of opportunity may also reduce this imbalance.”

A Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes at sea in the North Pacific, photograph by Vicki Miller

Reference:

Mott, R. & Clarke, R.H. 2018. Systematic review of geographic biases in the collection of at-sea distribution data for seabirds. Emu - Austral Ornithology. DOI:10.1080/01584197.2017.1416957.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 February 2018

Oliver Padget (Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK) and colleagues have written in the journal Current Biology on compass orientation in Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus.

The paper’s summary follows:

“Compass orientation is central to the control of animal movement from the scale of local food-caching movements around a familiar area in parids [1] and corvids [2, 3] to the first autumn vector navigation of songbirds embarking on long-distance migration [4–6]. In the study of diurnal birds, where the homing pigeon, Columba livia, has been the main model, a time-compensated sun compass [7] is central to the two-step map-and-compass process of navigation from unfamiliar places, as well as guiding movement via a representation of familiar area landmarks [8–12]. However, its use by an actively navigating wild bird is yet to be shown. By phase shifting an animal’s endogenous clock, known as clock-shifting [13–15], sun-compass use can be demonstrated when the animal incorrectly consults the sun’s azimuthal position while homing after experimental displacement [15–17]. By applying clock-shift techniques at the nest of a wild bird during natural incubation, we show here that an oceanic navigator—the Manx shearwater, Puffinus puffinus—incorporates information from a time-compensated sun compass during homeward guidance to the breeding colony after displacement. Consistently with homing pigeons navigating within their familiar area [8, 9, 11, 18], we find that the effect of clock shift, while statistically robust, is partial in nature, possibly indicating the incorporation of guidance from landmarks into movement decisions.”

Manx Shearwater, photograph by Nathan Fletcher

Reference:

Padget, O., Bond, S.L., Kavelaars, M.M., van Loon, E., Bolton, M., Fayet, A.L., Syposz, M., Roberts, S. & Guilford, T. 2018. In situ clock shift reveals that the sun compass contributes to orientation in a pelagic seabird. Current Biology doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.11.062.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 January 2018

ACAP Latest News has regularly reported on the deprivations introduced House Mice Mus musculus are causing to surface- and burrow-nesting seabirds on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island, including to four species of ACAP-listed and globally threatened albatrosses (click here).

A Light-mantled Sooty Albatross Phoebetria palpebrata "scalped" by mice on Marion Island, photograph by Peter Ryan

In the most recent posting describing disturbing attacks by mice on Marion’s albatrosses it was stated that “South Africa is now considering making an eradication attempt on the island, as briefly mentioned in its Implementation Report (AC10 Inf 10) to ACAP’s meetings in Wellington, New Zealand [last year]” (click here).

As well as by research publications listed in the recent post this consideration was influenced by a feasibility study conducted in 2015 by island eradication expert John Parkes from New Zealand.  Inter alia, his feasibility study calls for increased knowledge of the island’s mice needed to ensure a high chance of their eradication.

An Environmental Officer to spend a year on the island from April is to be appointed. The appointee’s work programme will concentrate on conducting field work on the mice with the following topics to be covered:

• Conduct a large-scale bait uptake trial by mice at Marion Island in May 2018;
• Assess lethal doses of poison bait on captive mice;
• Conduct regular surveys of mouse breeding status over winter (April-October);
• Estimate crude densities of mice across an altitudinal gradient through the target baiting period (May-September); and
• Monitor cloud heights over the baiting window using remote cameras.

Read more here.

Reference:

Parkes, J. 2016. Eradication of House Mice Mus musculus from Marion Island: a review of feasibility, constraints and risks. BirdLife South Africa Occasional Report Series No. 1. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 January 2018

Following on from two recent posts to ACAP Latest News of albatrosses at sea that had been daubed with paint and had a plastic band wrapped around the bill, Leandro Bugoni (Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, Brazil) reports to ALN of an adult Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos (globally Endangered) with a long packing strap (as commonly used to secure boxes of fish or squid bait) tightly knotted around its left leg.

The bird was spotted at sea on 22 February 2006, off southern Brazil (33.95S; 51.45W) by Captain Celso Oliveira of the long liner Ana Amaral I, which was trolling and hand lining for tuna at the time. Attention was then drawn to its ‘unusual long tail feathers’.

Leandro, aboard the long liner sampling birds for his PhD degree, then used a cast net to capture the bird, confirming that the trailing objects were not tail feathers but a white plastic packing strap.

 The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross with the knotted packing strap in place and showing the injured leg after its removal

In the hand the bird was active and appeared healthy despite a wound from the strap, suggesting it been knotted around the leg for some time. Following removal of the strap a blood sample was taken for stable isotope analysis and molecular sexing (it was determined to be a male) and moult and mensural data collected. The albatross was banded with CEMAVE/ICMBio U29584 on its right, uninjured leg and then released at sea.

The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, freed of the packing strap, flies away after release

All photographs from Leandro Bugoni

It seems certain the strap had been deliberately tied to the bird’s leg, likely by a fisher for seemingly no purpose other than idle amusement.

With thanks to Leandro Bugoni.

References:

Bugoni, L., Neves, T.S., Leite Jr., N.O., Carvalho, D., Sales, G., Furness, R.W., Stein, C.E., Peppes, F.V., Giffoni, B.B. & Monteiro, D.S. 2008. Potential bycatch of seabirds and turtles in hook-and-line fisheries of the Itaipava Fleet, Brazil. Fisheries Research 90: 217-224.

Bugoni, L., Neves, T.S., Peppes, F.V. & Furness, R.W. 2008. An effective method for trapping scavenging seabirds at sea. Journal of Field Ornithology 79: 308-313.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 January 2018