Speaking at Forest and Bird’s 2018 Conference this last weekend, the Green Party Conservation Minister for New Zealand, Eugenie Sage MP, has committed NZ$2 million over the next three years to complete planning, including field trials, towards making sub-Antarctic Auckland Island free of introduced feral pigs and cats and House Mice.  The feasibility funding comes from a four-year budget appropriation of NZ$81.3 million aimed towards achieving a predator-free New Zealand by 2050.

Five ACAP-listed species breed on the main Auckland Island: the Gibson’s subspecies of the Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni, Southern Royal Albatross D. epomophora, White capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi, Light-mantled Albatross Phoebetria palpebrata and Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (click here).

A feral pig on Auckland Island

In her speech the Minister said:

“This is an ambitious project on the 46,000 ha Auckland Island and a major step towards the goal of New Zealand being predator free by 2050.  The funding will allow greater understanding of the scale and complexity of the problem and help guide decisions about eradicating pigs, cats and mice from Auckland Island.

“Any decision to proceed will require a long-term commitment of resources and effort. Early estimates suggest the potential cost of eradication may be in the order of [NZ]$40 million to [NZ]$50 million over eight to 10 years.  Introduced pigs and cats have devastated Auckland Island’s native wildlife and plants. Mice are also a problem by competing for food with native birds, and attacking seabird chicks.

“Eradicating these pests from New Zealand’s fifth-largest island would see Auckland Island become the country’s largest pest-free island. It would complete the removal of introduced predators from all of New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands, cementing our reputation as a world leader in predator control.

“The vision for a pest-free New Zealand sub-Antarctic islands builds on previous eradication success in the region: Auckland Island (goats by 1992), Enderby Island (rabbits and mice 1993), Rose Island (rabbits in 1993), Campbell Island (rats in 2001) and more recently Antipodes Island (mice in 2016). No mammalian pests occur on the sub-Antarctic Snares and Bounty Islands.”

In addition Australia has eradicated all the introduced mammalian pests on Macquarie Island that falls within the region (click here for the story of the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project).

The new funding follows on from the Department of Conservation advertising for a Pest Eradication Project Leader for Auckland Island last year.  Auckland Island falls within the Auckland Islands National Nature Reserve and is part of New Zealand's Sub-Antarctic Islands World Heritage Site inscribed in 1998.

White-capped Albatross, photograph by Graham Parker

Read more on the funding announcement here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 June 2018

Marcela Uhart (University of Californa, Davis) and colleagues have reviewed diseases affecting the 31 ACAP-listed species in the journal Bird Conservation International.

The paper’s summary follows:

"Albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and large petrels (Macronectes and Procellaria spp.) are among the world’s most rapidly declining birds. Some of the most endangered species, Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri and Sooty Albatross Phoebetria fusca, are at risk from recurrent avian cholera outbreaks. Yet little is known about the overall impact of disease in this group. We compiled all available information on pathogens described in albatrosses and large petrel species listed under the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) (n = 31). Available reports (n = 53) comprise nearly 60% of ACAP species (18/31). However, only 38% of them focus on threatened species (20/53), and 43% solely report macroparasite findings (23/53). Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys [sic] (Near Threatened) and Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (Least Concern) are the two species with higher number of publications (29/53, 55% of all papers). Conversely, seven species on the IUCN Red List have three papers or less each. Most existing research has resulted from disease or mortality investigations and baseline studies (28 and 32%, respectively). Pathogens reported in the subset of ACAP species, included bacteria in seven species (39%), viruses in five (28%), protozoa in four (22%), helminths in nine (50%), ectoparasites in 13 (72%) and fungi in one species (5%). Avian cholera, caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, appears as the most severe threat to ACAP species. Infections by poxvirus are the most common viral finding, yet entail lower population level impact. Few serosurveys report pathogen exposure in these species, but add valuable baseline information. There are numerous obvious gaps in species and geographical coverage and likely under-reporting due to remoteness, accessibility and sporadic monitoring. This insufficient knowledge may be hampering effective protection and management of populations at risk. Attention to species currently affected by avian cholera is of utmost priority."

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross - susceptible to avian cholera on Amsterdam Island, photograph by Peter Ryan

Reference:

Uhart, M.M., Gallo, L. & Quintana, F. 2018.  Review of diseases (pathogen isolation, direct recovery and antibodies) in albatrosses and large petrels worldwide.  Bird Conservation International 28: 169-196.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 June 2018

The documentary film ALBATROSS was offered as a “permanent gift to the world” on World Oceans Day this month, when it was screened at the United Nations, for free viewing and downloading (click here).

A Laysan Albatross regurgitates plastic fragments to its chick

Corpse of a Laysan Albatross on Midway showing its stomach contents of plastic artefacts, including a cigarette lighter

Photographs by Manuel Maqueda and Chris Jordan

Filmed at Midway Atoll in the North Pacific it concentrates on the ingestion of plastic artefacts by ACAP-listed and globally Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis.

Find more information on the 97-minute film here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 June 2018

Kalinka Rexer-Huber (Parker Conservation, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have submitted a draft report to the Conservation Services Programme of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on the demographics of the globally Near Threatened White-capped Albatross Thalassarche steadi on Disappointment Island, part of the Auckland Islands.

The report’s Executive Summary follows:

“The white-capped albatross Thalassarche cauta steadi is a biennially-breeding seabird endemic to New Zealand. The species ranks highly in assessments of the risk of commercial fisheries to New Zealand seabird populations, but there is some uncertainty around key life-history parameters. The overarching objective of this study is to obtain robust estimates of white-capped albatross demographic parameters.

To estimate key parameters, including adult survival, recruitment and population trends, we established a marked population of breeding birds at Disappointment Island, Auckland Islands (the largest population of white-capped albatross). We report on field work in 2018 to resight banded albatrosses and increase the number of banded birds in the study area. Three years of recaptures are not sufficient for robust demographic rate estimates, but enable some exploratory analyses. To assess how many further resighting visits might be required for demographic rate estimates to be suitably precise, we generate preliminary demographic rates from resightings to date (2015–2018) and use these to simulate realistic ‘dummy’ resighting data that build on the real data to date.

A total of 521 breeding white-capped albatrosses have been banded in four annual visits to Disappointment Island 2015–2018. A third of white-capped albatross banded in previous years were resighted in 2018, compared to 22% and 23% in the two previous visits 2016 and 2017. These resighting rates are encouraging, given the short duration of visits (insufficient time for incubating birds to be relieved by mates), and given that the primary focus of the work was on banding, not resighting.

Simulation modelling indicated that the accuracy and precision of all estimated parameters incrementally improves with further consecutive resighting years. Using the example of adult survival, we show that the rate of decrease in the variance of survival estimates was greatest with 1–3 further years of consecutive resighting effort from present.”

White-capped Albatrosses, photograph by Matt Charteris

With thanks to Barry Baker.

Reference:

Rexer-Huber, K., Thompson, D.R. & Parker, G.C. 2018.  Draft White-capped albatross mark-recapture study at Disappointment Island, Auckland Islands. Field season 2018.  Draft Report to Department of Conservation, Conservation Services Programme.  Dunedin: Parker Conservation  15 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 June 2018