A Wandering Albatross on Kerguelen

Pierrick Blanchard (Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l’Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, France) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Ecological Society of America on the findings of a field experiment on the effect of  feral cats on Wandering Albatrosses on the main island (Grande Terre) of the Kerguelen Islands.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Invasive alien species are a major threat to seabird species, and the number of impacted species is still increasing. A recent study revealed for the first time that feral cats predated a large albatross species and that without cat control, some albatross populations would markedly decline. We examined this new predator–prey system by individually monitoring known-age wandering albatross chicks with camera traps in a colony experimentally divided into zones with and without cat control. Our design allowed us to investigate how cat control influenced cat abundance and how this in turn influenced the probability for a chick to be predated by a cat. After cat controls, cat abundance was lower in controlled zones than in uncontrolled zones, while a survival analysis showed that the probability for a chick to die from cat predation depended on the zone but not on cat abundance. Our monitoring also provided a fine-scale investigation of the various sources of chick mortality. In addition to cat predation (24% of mortality overall), our data documented predation by giant petrels, for the first time in Kerguelen, and revealed a strong and unexpected effect of nest flooding on chick mortality. Overall, our results underline the need for future studies investigating interindividual variability in cat diet and spatial ecology.”

Reference

Blanchard, P., Delord, K., Bodin, A., Guille, K., Getti, T., and Barbraud, C. 2024. “Impact and Control of Feral Cats Preying on Wandering Albatrosses: Insights from a Field Experiment.” Ecosphere  15(2): e4792. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4792

4 March 2024

Top: The banner created by Marion Schön for ABUN Project #47 “Marine Protected Areas”
Bottom: Artworks (L-R): George and Geraldine, Short-tailed Albatrosses by Flávia F. Barreto from a photo by J Plissner; Short-tailed Albatross chick by Marion Schön from a photo by Jonathan Plissner; “All you need is love" - and zumba!” Short-tailed Albatrosses by Di Roberts

The first artworks for ABUN Project #47 under the theme, “Marine Protected Areas – Safeguarding our Oceans” have been created in support of this year's World Albatross Day to be celebrated on 19 June. By focusing on the connection between albatrosses and the ocean, this year’s World Albatross Day hopes to highlight how Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can help improve the conservation status of these magnificent birds. 

Short-tailed Albatross by Doug Hiser

The establishment of MPAs can assist in improving the conservation status of albatrosses through the protection of the immediate surrounds of their breeding localities and key regions across their migratory ranges, and through the management of activities permitted within them, such as fishing. 

New Zealand’s Near Threatened Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri and the Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus have been chosen as the featured species for WAD2024. 

Artworks from top left (clockwise): George and Geraldine Short-tailed Albatrosses by M Lucia Bendasoli; “And then they said ...!'  wait, no way!” Buller's Albatrosses by Ellyn Bousman Lentz; Buller’s Albatross by Peter Ward from a photo by Enzo M Reyes; George Short-tailed Albatross by Judith Mackay from a photo by Jon Plissner; “Will you be mine?” Buller's Albatrosses by Ellyn Bousman Lentz; “The guiding heart” Buller’s Albatross by Virginia Nicol from photos by Dominique Filipino and Paul Sagar

An official World Albatross Day poster in ACAP’s three official languages of English, French and Spanish will be released in the coming weeks and will be made available at high resolution to download at the ACAP website. 

ABUN Project #47, will run until 31 March and is the fifth collaboration between ACAP and Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature in support of World Albatross Day.

1 February 2024

Antipodean Albatrosses on Antipodes Island, photograph by Kath Walker MNZM

In 2022 the Ornithological Society of New Zealand produced the Fifth Edition of its Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand.  The 335-page occasional publication (digital only) gives information on nomenclature, taxonomy, classification, distribution, breeding localities and status of the birds (including vagrants) of New Zealand, its sub-Antarctic islands and its surrounding waters.  Common names are given in English and in Māori.  A total of 427 living or recently extinct species is covered by the checklist.

New Zealand is known for the large number of seabird species that has been recorded within its region, notably among the procellariiforms (albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters), including 25 species of the 31 listed by the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.  Of the 22 species of albatrosses recognized by ACAP, 18 species have been recorded within the New Zealand region, 13 of them as breeders.  Seven of the nine ACAP-listed petrels and shearwaters are in the checklist, five of them as breeders.  The information provided in the 5th Edition of the checklist will thus prove valuable, for example, in updating many of the ACAP Species Assessments.

A Chatham Albatross straddles its chick on a pedestal mud nest on the Pyramid, photograph by Lorna Deppe

The checklist’s taxonomic treatment is broadly similar to that of ACAP’s.  For example, for the great albatrosses Diomedea that it groups in a “wandering albatross” complex, it recognizes five taxa in four species: Amsterdam D. amsterdamensis, Antipodean D antipodensis (including the subspecies gibsoni), Tristan D. dabbenena and Wandering D. exulans.  Similarly, it recognizes two subspecies for Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri.  There are a few differences, notably Shy Thalassarche cauta and White-capped T. steadi Albatrosses are treated subspecifically, and not as full species as ACAP does.

English common names are also broadly similar, but there are some differences, e.g. Campbell Black-browed Albatross T. impavida and Chatham Island Albatross T. eremita, rather than the shorter Campbell and Chatham Albatrosses favoured by ACAP.  The now somewhat old-fashioned Light-mantled Sooty Albatross is retained for Phoebetria palpebrata, whereas most modern treatments have dropped the “Sooty”, as has ACAP.  No mention of the “Snowy Albatross” used by those who watch seabirds on pelagic excursions, to refer (it seems) to large, mainly white albatrosses they find hard to identify to species.

A Northern Giant Petrel chick on Disappointment Island, Auckland Islands, photograph by Graham Parker

Five ACAP-listed petrels in the genera Macronectes and Procellaria breed within New Zealand, their taxonomy and common names follow those used by ACAP.

Reference:

Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2022.  Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand (5th Edition). Ornithological Society of New Zealand Occasional Publication No. 1.  Wellington: Ornithological Society of New Zealand.  335 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 29 February 2024

A Wandering Albatross flying near South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur*); photograph by Kirk Zufelt

High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been detected in Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans on the subantarctic islands of South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur*).

Dr Richard Phillips is Head of the British Antarctic Survey’s Higher Predators and Conservation Group and Vice-convenor of ACAP’s Population and Conservation Status Working Group and has been working with albatrosses and petrels in the region for over 20 years. 

Expressing concern about the current situation he said: "In terms of albatross species at South Georgia, as far as we are aware it’s just [Wandering Albatrosses] that are dying in large numbers from avian flu. More than 50 adult Wanderers died, although the last of those was a couple of weeks ago so we’re really hoping there won’t be any/many more."

This outbreak, which began with Brown Skuas in October 2023 and has since affected other species including elephant seals, fur seals, Kelp Ggulls and Antarctic Terns, poses significant challenges for conservation efforts. 

The eggs of Wandering Albatrosses laid in December last year will begin hatching in March and although there is concern for the chicks, Dr Phillips said the the survival of adults is more pressing. 

“…possibly the chicks might not be affected this summer or during the winter (when just visited by their parents) but there could be a new wave of infections at the start of the next austral summer when the summer-breeding species – including skuas – return. Mortality of adults is more serious as their survival is naturally much higher than that of chicks and so their loss has a greater impact on population trends.”

Collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI), and with DEFRA’s Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA) aims to monitor and mitigate the transmission of HPAI H5N1. 

In November 2023, the Agreement’s Intersessional Group on High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza H5N1 released an updated version of ACAP’s Guidelines for working with albatrosses and petrels during the high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 panzootic, available at the ACAP website, here.

28 February 2024

*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.