ACAP Latest News has reported more than once on the translocation of eggs of the Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis (Near Threatened) from the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands (PFMR) on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, that has been conducted over the last 12 breeding seasons. The eggs are removed as part of an effort to halt recruitment to the locality to reduce the chances of bird strikes with aeroplanes (click here).

In the current 2018/2019 season, PMRF natural resources workers and partners have recorded about 65 occupied nests, down from a high of c. 80 over the last 15 years.  So far this season 67 eggs have been collected.  Of these, 27 fertile eggs were taken to Oahu to replace infertile eggs in the Laysan Albatross population within the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve, following 21 eggs translocated to that colony for the same purpose in the previous season (click here).

A further 16 eggs were placed with foster parents that had infertile eggs within fenced private properties along Kauai’s North Shore (click here).  Three eggs are being kept in a PMRF incubator awaiting an opportunity for translocation.  The remaining 21 PMRF eggs were found to be infertile following candling.

In addition three adult birds were captured within the PMRF and relocated to the North Shore the same day.

A Kauai Laysan Albatross gets a fertile egg, photograph by Hob Osterlund

Read more here.

Partners in the project include PMRF Natural Resources, Pacific Rim Conservation, Kauai Albatross Network, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 January 2019

A Postdoctoral Associate is required to work on an NSF-funded study by the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York, USA on albatross foraging energetics in relation to wind variability.

Grey-headed Albatross, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Brief Description of Duties

The Senior Postdoctoral Associate will examine how oceanographic and atmospheric variability affect foraging habitat and energetics of albatrosses in the Southern Ocean.  Analyses will focus on albatross tracking, accelerometry data and satellite environmental data.  The incumbent will conduct field studies at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) research station at Bird Island, South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur*) in collaboration with scientists at BAS, and will prepare manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals and will present at scientific conferences.  A strong candidate will have excellent written communication skills as demonstrated by prior peer-reviewed publications.  The selected candidate will need previous experience working at remote field sites.

The anticipated start is in summer** of 2019 and the position is open for applications until 9 February.

Required Qualifications

Ph.D. in biology, ecology, marine science or a related field.  Three years of experience in biology, ecology, marine science or related field.  Experience with advanced statistics.  Experience programming in R, Matlab or other statistical languages.  Experience handling and working with seabirds.  Current bird-banding license or the ability to obtain one within one year of hire.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience working with the following: animal movement data, accelerometry data and satellite data. Two or more years of experience using advanced statistics.  Excellence in the field as demonstrated by relevant publications.  Prior experience writing proposals to attain external funding.

Further information can be found here.

Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 January 2019

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

**Assumed Boreal summer

André Raine (Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Recovery, Hawai'i, USA) and colleagues have published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on introduced Barn Owls Tyto alba killing seabirds, including shearwaters and petrels, on three Hawaiian islands.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Barn Owl Tyto alba was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1950s as a biological control for rats Rattus spp. and has since become common throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. Herein, we address the impact on Hawaiian seabirds by summarizing the number of seabird depredations recorded in the database of the Kaua‘i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project. Data were collected on Kaua‘i and the neighboring islets of Lehua and Moku‘ae‘ae between January 2011 and October 2018 as part of ongoing seabird survey work; 379 Barn Owl depredations were recorded of eight seabird species, the most common of which were Wedge-tailed Shearwater Ardenna pacifica, Black Noddy Anous minutus, and Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii. Included were 21 depredations on federally listed Newell's Shearwater Puffinus newelli and Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis. Most depredations were on adult birds. The effectiveness of Barn Owl control was also evident, with depredations on Lehua Islet decreasing significantly after dedicated control operations were initiated. Barn Owl control should be considered as an integral part of all Hawaiian seabird management programs.”

Newell's Shearwater, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

Reference:

Raine, A.F., Vynne, M. & Driskill, S. 2019.  The impact of an introduced avian predator, the Barn Owl Tyto alba, on Hawaiian seabirds.  Marine Ornithology 47: 33-38.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 January 2019

Hanna Granroth‐Wilding (Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Finland) and Richard Phillips have published in the journal Ibis on tracking Northern Macronectes halli and Southern M. giganteus Giant Petrels at sea through their breeding season.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Biological communities are shaped by competition between and within species. Competition is often reduced by inter‐ and intraspecific specialization on resources, such as differencet [sic] foraging areas or time, allowing similar species to coexist and potentially contributing to reproductive isolation. Here, we examine the simultaneous role of temporal and spatial foraging segregation within and between two sympatric sister species of seabirds, Northern Macronectes halli and Southern Macronectes giganteus Giant Petrels. These species show marked sexual size dimorphism and allochrony (with earlier breeding by Northern Giant Petrels) but this is the first study to test for differences in foraging behaviours and areas across the entire breeding season both between the two species and between the sexes. We tracked males and females of both species in all breeding stages at Bird Island, South Georgia, to test how foraging distribution, behaviour and habitat use vary between and within species in biological time (incubation, brood‐guard or post‐brood stages) and in absolute time (calendar date). Within each breeding stage, both species took trips of comparable duration to similar areas, but due to breeding allochrony they segregated temporally. Northern Giant Petrels had a somewhat smaller foraging range than Southern Giant Petrels, reflecting their greater exploitation of local carrion and probably contributing to their recent higher population growth. Within species, segregation was spatial, with females generally taking longer, more pelagic trips than males, although both sexes of both species showed unexpectedly plastic foraging behaviour. There was little evidence of interspecific differences in habitat use. Thus, in giant petrels, temporal segregation reduces interspecific competition and sexual segregation reduces intraspecific competition. These results demonstrate how both specialization and dynamic changes in foraging strategies at different scales underpin resource division within a community.”

A scavenging Southern Giant Petrel, photo by John Cooper

With thanks to Richard Phillips.

Reference:

Granroth‐Wilding, H.M.V. & Richard A. Phillips, R.A. 2019.  Segregation in space and time explains the coexistence of two sympatric sub‐Antarctic petrels.  Ibis 106: 101-116.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 January 2019