A total of 23 globally Endangered and nationally “Naturally Uncommon” Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi chicks has fledged at Taiaroa Head situated on the mainland of New Zealand’s South Island this last breeding season. Twenty-five eggs hatched from 38 laid by 36 pairs. Two of the 36 breeding attempts were by female-female pairs which laid a total of four eggs (one each), only one of which was fertile so at least one extra-pair copulation by a male must have occurred. Of the 34 fertile eggs laid, eight embryos died before hatching and one egg was crushed. Two chicks died soon after hatching, probably trampled by parents during nest change overs.

In te 2016/17 season 17 birds banded as chicks returned to the breeding locality as first-time visitors after spending from four to ten years at sea since fledging. The 2017/18 breeding season is set to start with 54 banded birds clocked in by 14 October and expected to commence laying eggs next month.

Among the chicks fledging in the 2016/17 season was Tūmanako (on 28 September), whose nest was followed by a live-streaming camera (“Royal Cam”), now in its second year of operation (watch the season's highlights).  An unnamed chick was the last of the 23 to fledge in mid October. Its male parent was Toroa, the 500th albatross to have fledged from the colony, in 2007, and first seen back in the colony as a seven-year old in 2014. Toroa (Maori for albatross) is the son of Button, the last chick Grandma produced in 1989. At 62 years of age Grandma was then the oldest recorded albatross in the World (click here).

Big Bird!  Royal Cam 2016/17 chick Tūmanako gets weighed while still in the downy phase, photograph from camera footage

Toroa, as a chick in 2007, photograph by Lyndon Perriman

Toroa returns to Taiaroa Head as an adult bird

Read news reports here and here and follow the Royal Albatross Centre on Facebook.

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised of Taiaroa’s albatrosses consuming plastic items while at sea. Eight out nine regurgitations collected from chicks this last season contained plastic items. “Most of the time, small plastic fragments up to 5 cm wide were discovered but everyday items such as plastic bottle caps were also being found” (click here).  Previously, squid lures and plastic fishing floats have been recovered from Taiaroa Northern Royal Albatrosses.

With thanks to the Royal Albatross Centre.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 October 2017

Lehua is a small, uninhabited island sanctuary in the USA’s Hawaiian chain that supports populations of breeding seabirds, including small numbers of ACAP-listed Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses (click here).  Following an unsuccessful attempt in 2009 to eradicate the island’s Pacific Rats Rattus exulans, a second attempt was made this year over August and September with three successive poison bait drops by helicopter (click here).

Lehua Island

Black-footed Albatrosses on Lehua Island, photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

It is usual to wait two years with no sign of rats before formally confirming a treated island is rodent free. However, according to news reports this week the signs for Lehua are already good a month after the last bait drop with no rat sightings or sign and abundant seabird breeding activity recorded on a post-treatment visit: “the island was full of fat, healthy wedge-tailed shearwater [Ardenna pacifica] chicks and we saw no negative impacts of the bait drop.” (click here).

A 28-minute documentary entitled “Lehua Island - Restoration of a Tropical Bird Paradise” will be shown on Hawaii TV this weekend (click here for viewing details).

Read more news reports on the eradication attempt here and here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 October 2017

The globally Near Threatened and nationally Vulnerable Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta is endemic to Australia, breeding on only three islands around Tasmania. In an attempt to improve its breeding success on Albatross Island it was announced in June that artificial nests would be trialled this summer breeding season because monitoring has shown that pairs breeding on high-quality nests have a higher breeding success than those on poorer quality nests. (click here). “[Natural] nests range from a barest scrape on the rocks to a high sculptured pottery-like pedestal”.

A total of 120 nests has now been manufactured and taken to the Bass Strait island by helicopter. They have been placed in breeding areas with low-quality natural nests, with most being reported in use by the birds. Rachael Alderman, marine biologist at the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment who has long studied the bird reports: “the albatrosses using the artificial nests are displaying all the usual courting rituals, territorial behaviours and nesting activities that we would expect to be associated with a natural nest. In most cases the pair has added their own mud and other material.”

“The nests, made of mud brick and aerated concrete, have been specially designed to mimic the properties of natural nests. They weigh between 12 kg and 20 kg and are 45 cm wide and 30 cm high. Researchers positioned the artificial nests just as the birds were starting to stake out nest sites and begin construction.” (click here). Eggs have already been laid in some of the artificial nests.

Artificial nests get unpacked on Albatross Island

An artificial nests gets placed next to a Shy Albatross

Two Shy Albatrosses take occupation of artificial nests

An incubating Shy Albatross had added mud to its artificial nest

A Shy Albatross has settled down in an incubation position on its well-plastered artificial nest

The project is being funded by the Tasmanian and Australian Federal Governments, WWF-Australia, the CSIRO and the Tasmanian Albatross Fund. If the artificial nests prove to be successful it is intended that more will be introduced.

Read more here and here.

An earlier intervention on the island that trialled insectidal spraying against avian pox resulted in increased chick survival in treated areas (click here).

Photographs taken in October 2017 by Matthew Newton, WWF-Australia

With thanks to Rachael Alderman, Matthew Newton and Robert Vagg.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 October 2017                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Gabriela Oliveira (Waterbirds and Sea Turtles Laboratory, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Biodiversity on a first record of Scopoli’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea in the south-west Atlantic Ocean.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Knowledge of marine biodiversity has been increased by combining modern and traditional tools that render species identification an accurate process. In addition, understanding the ecological differences between closely related species is critical for effective conservation. Calonectris (Aves: Procellariidae) is a four-species genus of phenotypically similar pelagic seabirds; three of the four species inhabit the Atlantic Ocean. However, this taxonomic splitting has not been completely recognised in the New World, hindering our understanding of species-specific nonbreeding distributions because of misidentification in nonbreeding areas. Here, we have presented the first Scopoli’s shearwater, Calonectris diomedea, in the southwest Atlantic Ocean by using morphometrics, stable isotope analyses, and bill and plumage colouring. Although the southwest Atlantic Ocean is a common nonbreeding area for the sister species, Cory’s shearwater, Calonectris borealis, and Cape Verde shearwater, Calonectris edwardsii, it has been considered a potential nonbreeding area for Scopoli’s shearwater. This study contributes to the separation of Cory’s shearwater from Scopoli’s shearwater and provides a record of the latter in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, thus contributing to a better understanding of the nonbreeding range of Scopoli’s shearwater in the New World.”

Scopoli's Shearwater at sea, photograph by 'Pep' Arcos

Reference:

Oliveira, G., Nunes, G.T., Marques, F.P. & Bugoni, L. 2017. Scopoli’s shearwater, Calonectris diomedea, in the southwest Atlantic Ocean. Marine Biodiversity doi.org/10.1007/s12526-017-0798-9.

John Cooper, ACAP information Officer, 17 October 2017