At the beginning of December the ACAP Secretariat sees a change when Christine Bogle takes over from Marco Favero as the Agreement’s Executive Secretary, following a recruitment process that commenced in March this year.  Christine will become ACAP’s third Executive Secretary, after Marco who in February 2016 took over from Warren Papworth, who served for six years in the role.

Christine Bogle, a New Zealander, has a BA (Hons, First Class) in English and MA (Hons, First Class) in French from Victoria University of Wellington earned over 1971 to 1976, where she is currently completing a PhD in Political Science in the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations commenced in 2014. Previously, she worked for over 30 years as a diplomat with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).  She has served in five overseas posts: Peru, Italy, Spain, Tonga and Mexico, the last three as Head of Mission (Ambassador/High Commissioner).  During her career with MFAT she also spent several years working on multilateral issues, including two stints in the Ministry’s Environment Division, the first time as a founding member of the division and the second time as its Acting Director. During that time she became acquainted with the Albatross and Petrel Agreement and developed a strong interest in its work.  During the course of her university education and diplomatic career Christine has become proficient in both French and Spanish; she will thus be able to converse and communicate with Parties to ACAP and meeting delegates in all three of the Agreement’s official languages.

Christine made her first visit from New Zealand to the ACAP Secretariat in Hobart over 8-11 October.  The current Executive Secretary Marco Favero reports to ACAP Latest News:

“These were hectic working days.  My replacement was given a general overview about the work of the Secretariat and was introduced to key personnel in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Tasmania (DFAT Tasmania), Department of State Growth Tasmania (in particular Antarctic Tasmania), and with Jonathon Barrington of the Australian Antarctic Division, who is Australia’s ACAP National Contact Point and also a member of ACAP’s Advisory Committee.  Jonathan took the opportunity to brief Christine on the implementation of the ACAP Headquarters Agreement with the Tasmanian Government.”

Getting to know you: Jonathan Barrington, Marco Favero and Christine Bogle confer in the ACAP Secretariat's offices in Hobart

Christine Bogle will return to Hobart on 24 November for a hand-over week and will take charge of the Secretariat on 1 December for an initial four-year period, renewable for a further four-year term. She writes “I’m looking forward to taking up the reins from 1 December and carrying on the good work of my predecessors as Executive Secretary"

ACAP will hold the Eleventh Meeting of its Advisory Committee and meetings of two of its working groups in Florianópolis, Brazil in May next year. This will afford the new Executive Secretary the opportunity to meet and work with delegates and working group members expected to be attending from all 13 Parties to the Agreement, as well as from a number of Range States and international organizations.

Marco Favero will travel home to Argentina straight after handing over to Christine Bogle.  He will resume his work as a Principal Investigator with the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET).  Marco will leave with ACAP’s best wishes and grateful thanks for his three years of service to the Agreement’s Secretariat and another nine years as Advisory Committee Chair.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 October 2018

It is well known that North Pacific albatrosses swallow large amounts of floating plastic items, which they feed to their chicks, as for example highlighted in the film ALBATROSS by Chris Jordan.

In the southern hemisphere, the main home of the world’s albatross species, it seems much less plastic ends up in the stomachs of albatross chicks, perhaps at least partially reflecting the smaller amounts of plastic floating in southern seas.  Records of plastic ingestion will help assess the severity of the problem. A recent post by the Royal Albatross Centre shows that the globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi of Taiaroa Head in New Zealand are not immune from plastic pollution as the following quote and photograph show.

“On an unremarkable plastic tab, ‘OPEN’ spelled out in raised letters lets the consumer know how they will get into their yogurt or ice cream container.  In an instant, that tab is broken off and its life as a useful piece of plastic is complete.  But where does it go from there?  For this one, into the gut of a hungry albatross chick on Taiaroa Head/Pukekura.  It is one of the five pieces of plastic found by [Department of Conservation] Rangers on the headland this year.

Albatross chicks, usually before they fledge, do their best to rid their guts of any indigestible material. For the most part, this means a small pile of squid beaks — gastric trophies of past meals. Small, sharp, and inconspicuous, these pieces of plastic were in amongst the squid beaks, and that is concerning.”

Plastic items regurgitated by four Northern Royal Albatross chicks at Taiaroa Head

Information from the Royal Albatross Centre.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 16 October 2018

Alejandra Piro (División Zoología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Argentina) and Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche have published in the journal Polar Biology on morphology of the skull of the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus is the largest Procellariidae around the world. Beyond the most striking features on the skull, the strong hooked bill with tubular, dorsally-placed, external nostrils, these petrels have been the focus of diverse studies, except osteological ones. Even less is known about the osteology in juveniles and chicks. A comparative description of the skull anatomy of the Southern Giant Petrel M. giganteus, highlighting the differences along each postnatal ontogenetic stage, is given here. As a result, we found that the shape of the skull does not vary among the compared stages and that there is a progression in the fusion of the elements of the skull and mandible. Besides, less obvious results show a little intraspecific variation among specimens of the same ontogenetic stage, involving osteological features such as the quantity and shape of foramina within pneumatic bone surfaces, and the fact that general size is not associated with sexual dimorphism. The beak acquires its characteristic development and sturdiness from early stages. Conversely, the fossae glandulae nasalis is only developed in juveniles and adults, being absent in earlier stages.”

A white-phase Southern Giant Petrel on Bouvet Island, photograph by Greg Hofmeyr

Reference:

Piro, A. & Acosta Hospitaleche, C. 2018.  Skull morphology and ontogenetic variation of the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (Aves: Procellariiformes).  Polar Biology doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2397-z.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 October 2018

Feather imping is a procedure, best known from falconry, whereby broken or missing flight feathers are replaced by identical feathers obtained from another bird, usually of the same species, by grafting.  Cases of imping being used on seabirds seem few; ACAP has identified only three such occasions, two on procellariiforms, as briefly described below.

The first case is of a Near Threatened Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis found in March 1979 on the US mainland in San Francisco with its wings and tail clipped.  Following imping of its primary and secondary wing feathers (the tail was left clipped) and two months of rehabilitation by International Bird Rescue it was banded (977-35061) and flown to and released on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in May the same year.  Remarkably, nine years later in February 1988 the bird, nicknamed “Munch” when in captivity, was discovered incubating on Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.  Read more here.

"Munch" discovered incubating on Isla Guadelupe on 25 January 1988

The second case discovered is of an underweight Red-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon rubricauda chick on the Hawaiian island of Kauai that was taken into captivity in 2006 and hand reared.  It was found to be unable to fly due to damaged flight feathers.  An imping procedure described in the Journal of Wildlife Rehabilitation allowed the bird to fledge.

The third and final record is of a globally Vulnerable Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandvicensis fledgling found on Kauai in 2015 with badly broken primary feathers.  In an imping procedure the Save our Shearwaters programme of the Kauai Humane Society took feathers from a previously deceased petrel and grafted them onto the broken shafts.  Each feather from the donor was placed on the same side and in the same order on the recipient bird.

“It is a meticulous process to align the feathers correctly and is done while the bird is under anaesthesia. This prevents stress and movement of the bird which could misalign the feathers before they are set”.

The bird was placed in a conditioning pool the day after the imping procedure to test waterproofing of the new feathers and released on the shoreline the next day.  Information edited from then Save our Shearwaters Facebook page

Reports of more cases of the imping of seabirds, especially of albatrosses and petrels, will be welcomed.

References:

Holcomb, J.  The remarkable story about “Munch” a Laysan Albatross.  Downloaded 20 September 2018.

Howell, S.N.G. 1994.  Remarkable recapture.  Bird Watcher’s Digest.  January/February: 46-49. [not seen]

Zaun, B.J., Sims, S., Batha, K., Knight, M., Welch, C., Granholm, C. & Swindle, K. 2008. Feather imping and rehabilitation of a Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda).  Journal of Wildlife Rehabilitation 29: 22-26.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 October 2018j