Bruno, the 3 year-old Black-footed Albatross that has returned to Mexico's Isla Guadalupe; photograph © GECI / J.A. Soriano

The first Black-footed Albatross from an international translocation project has returned to its new home on Isla Guadalupe in Mexico, raising hopes for the establishment of a new breeding colony on the island. 

The adult male was one of the 27 Black-footed Albatross eggs and chicks translocated from Hawaii’s Midway Atoll to Isla Guadalupe in the first year of the project in 2021.  

The translocation project aims to ensure the long-term survival of Black-footed Albatrosses whose populations predominantly breed on the low-lying atolls of the USA’s North-western Hawaiian Islands which are at risk to climate change. The initiative is a collaboration between Pacific Rim Conservation (PRC), Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) and other partner agencies in the USA and Mexico, and is supported by the governments of the two countries. 

Director General of GECI, Dr. Federico Alfonso Méndez Sánchez described the mood amongst project partners and field staff on the island as celebratory saying, “We feel humbled by the bird’s resilience and thus encouraged to continue with our efforts to give them a helping hand to thrive amidst the many threats they face.”

Dr Sanchez also pointed to the power of collaboration in conservation stating: “This project is also an example that we can achieve great positive outcomes for threatened species by working cooperatively at a local, regional and international level. Cooperation was key for the current success of this conservation translocation.”

This year, the translocation team were able to place 36 fertilised eggs with nesting Laysan Albatross pairs, who will raise the chicks as their own until they fledge.

23 February 2024

“Jessica” can be spotted by passing traffic from the road

Keith Springer, Operations Manager for the Mouse-Free Marion Project, is based in New Zealand.  He wrote to me recently on an unexpected sighting of an albatross in his home country: "I was driving through Cromwell (far, far [119 km] from the sea!) recently en route to Glenorchy and passed a massive albatross sculpture on the roadside.” Intrigued, and with Keith’s help, I found the Facebook page “Wyeth Design” of the sculptor, Mark Wyeth and made contact.

Mark describes himself as an artist working with “artwork, sculptures, restored furniture [and] upcycled bespoke one-off design pieces”.  His roadside albatross which he erected in December last year has a 3.6 m wingspan and has been whimsically named Jessica (after a female actor*).

Watch a 2m 26 s video depicting Jessica the albatross, mounted roadside with other sculptures, by Mark.

Mark Wyeth writes of his creation: “Living on the outskirts of Cromwell, we are the furthest by road to the sea than any other place in New Zealand.  For that reason, I have made an albatross to represent our beautiful skies and winds that carry in all directions.  The Maori meaning [Toroa] for this bird is “beauty and power” in literature and culture it is “mystery and fortune “.  A truly amazing bird, they can fly up to 11 8000 km a year, sometimes falling asleep as they fly.  They have the largest wingspan of any bird of up to 3.6 metres and this sculpture is exactly that.  Some species are thought to live to 70 years, normally only have one partner and can produce offspring up to the age of 60”.  He concludes: “So next time you look up and out into the blue yonder, even though you are so far from the ocean, the sky we see is the same one we share with this amazing species, it joins us all.”

Mark says his sculpture garden is still in the development stage.  He adds that “Sculpting for me is to touch, remind, reflect and to make people think about why and who they are.  “Jessica” isn’t to take them away from real life for a moment, but to bring them back to reality, nature does that, to forget that you forget who you are”.

ACAP Latest News has posted from time to time on albatross sculptures around the world. Click here for some other examples on Isla de Hornos, Chile, on Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador and on Midway Atoll, USA.  Another is to be found in Watchet, Somerset, United Kingdom.  Sadly, no giant petrel statues tracked down yet!

With thanks to Keith Springer and Mark Wyeth.

*Jessica Alba (tross)

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 22 February 2024

Abstract submission for the 11th SCAR Open Science Conference is now open. The conference, themed, “Antarctic Science: Crossroads for a New Hope," is being held in Pucón, Chile, from 19-23 August 2024.

“Abstracts can be submitted electronically via the conference website, www.scar2024.org. There is no abstract submission fee. Before submitting your abstract, take a look at the submission guidelines and list of 50 parallel sessions to find the best match. The parallel sessions cover a wide range of themes from the Physical Sciences, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences as well as Cross-disciplinary topics.”

The abstract submission deadline is Monday, 4 March 2024, 23:59 UTC.

For further information on the event, please visit the conference website, www.scar2024.org.

21 February 2024

Georg Steller, 18th Century German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer.  Artwork courtesy of the Center of Russian-German Cooperation of Georg Wilhelm Steller, University of Tyumen

The Vulnerable Short-tailed or Steller's Albatross Phoebastria albatrus is one of the two albatrosses (along with Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri) chosen to be featured for this year’s World Albatross Day (WAD2024) to be marked on 19 June.  The species was first described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas FRS from skins obtained by Georg Wilhelm Steller.

Georg Steller (10 March 1709 – 14 November 1746) was a German-born naturalist and physician who accompanied the Great Northern Expedition of 1733 to 1743 to the waters between Siberia and North America.  The expedition, conceived and authorised by Tsar Peter the Great of Russia, was led to Vitus Jonassen Bering (a Dane), after whom the Bering Sea is named.

A 10-year-old sub-adult Short-tailed Albatross on Sand Island, Midway Atoll, photograph by Jonathan Plissner, USFWS

Steller’s Albatross is now a little-used common name, “Short-tailed” being much preferred.  Of relatively recent handbooks and field guides its seems only the late Lance Tickell, in his 2000 book Albatrosses, used the eponymous name.  He argued that the other three Phoebastria albatrosses of the Pacific also had short tails, so it was not a good descriptor.

As well as “his” albatross, Georg Steller has Steller's Sea Eagle Haliaeetus pelagicus, Steller's Eider Polysticta stelleri, Steller’s Jay Cyanocitta stelleri and the then soon to be extinct Steller’s Sea Cow Hydrodamalis gigas, as well as the Steller (or Northern) Sea Lion Eumetopias jubatus, all named after him.  However, the three birds could be renamed by the American Ornithological Society, which is suggesting doing away with all eponymous names (click here).

Reference:

Steller, G.W. 1988.  Journal of a Voyage with Bering, 1741-1742.  Stanford University Press.  260 pp.

Tickell, W.L.N. 2000.  Albatrosses.  Mountfield: Pica Press.  448 pp.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 20 February 2024