Trapping of introduced predators takes place year round within the mainland breeding colony of globally Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi at Taiaroa Head at the end of New Zealand's Otago Peninsula.  Since the start of the current breeding season on 1 October last year totals of 53 rats Rattus sp., nine Stoats Mustela erminea, one Ferret M. putorius furo and two feral cats Felis catus have been trapped.

“We use kill traps baited with rabbit or hen’s eggs. There has been year-round trapping effort here since 1967 and seasonal trapping effort since the 1940s. This makes Taiaroa Head trapping one of the longest running trapping programmes in New Zealand” (click here).

A Northern Royal Albatross family at Taiaroa Head, photograph by Junichi Sugushita

Unlike albatross breeding sites on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Taiaroa Head is not protected by a predator-proof fence. However, a fence does halt entry by humans, domestic dogs and European Rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus, although cats, Stoats, Ferrets and rats are able to climb over it.  As previously reported by ACAP Latest News a predator-proof fence would need to be 600-m long to extend across the neck of the headland and would have to have a self-closing gate allowing both vehicle and pedestrian access (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 April 2018

Manuel Marin (Feather Link Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.) has published in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on aspects of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus in Chile.

The paper’s abstract follows:

Here I review the current knowledge of the breeding status of the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus in Chile and provide new data on the population at Isla Noir in the Región de Magallanes. Breeding numbers on Isla Noir are approximately six times greater than previously reported for the entire country, including all offshore islands except for the Diego Ramirez Archipelago, for which information is sparse. Here, I also describe the nests and eggs of this species found in Isla Noir, as well as feeding behavior, including consumption of carrion but also active hunting in penguin colonies. Only the Southern Giant Petrel, and not the Northern Giant Petrel M. halli, has been seen within Chilean fiords and nearshore waters.

Southern Giant Petrel, photograph by John Cooper

Reference:

Marin, M. 2018. Breeding of the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus in southern Chile. Marine Ornithology 46: 57-60.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 April 2018

This season’s hand-reared Chatham Albatrosses Thalassarche eremita, translocated as chicks from the Pyramid, sole breeding site for the species, have commenced fledging from the Point Gap translocation site on New Zealand’s Chatham Islands. During a windy period (view video) this week, the first four fledglings have left for the coastal waters of Chile (where a hand-reared bird from a previous season has been identified by its colour band - click here).

Translocated chicks on their bucket nests among adult decoys at Point Gap

The attempt to create a second breeding colony at Point Gap for the globally Vulnerable species is being led by the NGO Chatham Island Taiko Trust. The current group of 60 chicks is the fifth and last cohort to be hand-reared, bringing the total number translocated over the five years of the project to 282 (click here).

Decoys and a sound system will be left in place at Point Gap to help attract albatrosses to the site - which will be monitored for returning hand-reared as well as for wild birds. Visits to the Pyramid will also be made to look for any translocated birds that might have returned there instead.

Access ALN earlier postings on the translocation exercise here.

With thanks to Dave Boyle, Chatham Island Taiko Trust.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 April 2018

The first Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis hand-reared from an egg translocated from Kauai has returned to the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on Oahu in the Hawaiian islands after three years at sea in the North Pacific Ocean.

VIO6, a three-year-old hand-reared Laysan Albatross, returns to the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge

Photograph by Megan Dalton, Pacific Rim Conservation

The NGO Pacific Rim Conservation which is responsible for running the project designed to establish a new colony safe from sea-level rise has written on its Facebook page “We are beyond excited to share that the first of the translocated Laysan Albatross chicks raised in 2015 returned as an adult!  V106 landed in the release site on Monday [26 March] after three years on the open ocean. She looked happy and healthy which is great.”

V106, deemed to be a female and currently the subject of a naming competition, is the first to return of the 10 chicks hatched from the translocated eggs collected in December 2014 and that fledged in June 2015 from within a predator-proof fence on the refuge. Over three seasons a total of 46 hand-reared chicks (out of 50 eggs that hatched) has fledged from the refuge (10 in 2014/5, 19 in 2015/16 and 17 in 2016/17), so it seems a good bet more returning hand-reared Laysan Albatrosses will be having their colour bands read over the next few years. The expectation is that they will form pairs and commence breeding in the refuge, thus establishing a new colony for the species.

V106 as a downy chick during hand rearing in 2015

Photograph by Robby Kohley, Pacific Rim Conservation

According to Pacific Rim Conservation more than 700 wild adult Laysan Albatrosses have visited the refuge over the past three years as a result of a social attraction project that uses speakers and decoys to attract birds. A pair of wild adults has commenced breeding in the refuge for the first time, laying an egg in December 2017 (click here).

Read more here and here.

Access earlier ACAP Latest News items on translocation efforts, including now with Black-footed Albatrosses P. nigripes for the second year, at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge here.

With thanks to Lindsay Young, Pacific Rim Conservation

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 April 2018