ACAP Latest News

Read about recent developments and findings in procellariiform science and conservation relevant to the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in ACAP Latest News.

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Employment opportunities: help conserve Critically Endangered Tristan Albatrosses on World Heritage Gough Island for a year

A Senior Research Assistant and two Research Assistants are once again required for island restoration work on Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, a World Heritage Site.  Fieldwork will include demographic monitoring of the Critically Endangered and near-endemic Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, seriously at risk to attacks by alien House Mice Mus musculus, as well as of four other species of ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels.  Alien plant eradication also forms part of the work.  All three posts will be for a period of 15 months, consisting of two months pre-deployment training and 13 months deployment on Gough.

A male Tristan Albatross on its nest site near Gonydale on Gough Island investigates the photographer, Tom McSherry

“The primary rationale for these positions is to support the restoration of Gough Island.  We wish to attract committed candidates who will adapt to the requirements of this restoration programme and remain focused on the outputs needed to progress this globally important effort.  This position will offer a unique opportunity for highly motivated and disciplined individuals with relevant fieldwork skills and a keen interest in wildlife, who will adapt well to a small island living in a challenging sub-Antarctic environment.”

Details of the three posts and how to apply can be found on the website of the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) by clicking on Senior Research Assistant and two Research Assistants.  The closing date is 28 February 2017.

Click here for the previous year’s advert.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 February 2017

Saving Tristan Albatrosses from mice in 2019: the UK Government has committed £1.75 million to support the Gough Island Restoration Programme

The UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is working towards the eradication of “killer” House Mice Mus musculus on Gough Island, where they have been reducing breeding success of near-endemic and Critically Endangered Tristan Albatrosses Diomedea dabbenena to unsustainable levels for well over a decade – as regularly reported in ACAP Latest News (click here).

A Tristan Albatross chick after overnight attacks by mice, the bird died soon afterwards; photograph by Sylvain Dromzee

Along with the need to draw up complex plans for a helicopter-borne poison bait drop over the whole island, set to take place in the austral winter of 2019, is the requirement to raise the necessary funds for the operation (click here).

An eradication exercise in the mid-Atlantic is clearly going to be expensive, possibly costing as much as six million pounds, so the recent announcement by the RSPB that the UK Government has committed £1.75 million to support the Gough Island Restoration Programme is a welcome start (click here).

The UK had previously announced its intention to support the eradication of invasive mice on Gough Island at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CoP13) held in Cancun, Mexico last month (click here).

Click here for an illustrated information brochure about the eradication programme and view the mouse attack video.  A donations page has been set up by the RSPB to receive contributions.

Thanks to Clare Stringer, Head of International Species Recovery Unit, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 31 January 2017

Climate can effect recruitment age of Wandering Albatrosses

Rémi Fay (Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers-en-Bois, France) and colleagues have published in the journal Functional Ecology on how climate and population density effect Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans at different stages of their lives.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“1.  Although population responses to environmental variability have been extensively studied for many organisms, few studies have considered early-life stages owing to the inherent difficulties in tracking the fate of young individuals.  However, young individuals are expected to be more sensitive to environmental stochasticity owing to their inexperience and lower competitive abilities.  Thus, they are keys to understand demographic responses of an age-structured population to environmental variability.

2.  In this study, we used capture-recapture modelling, based on a 49 year-long individual-based longitudinal monitoring dataset, to investigate climatic and population density effects on immature demographic parameters in a long-lived seabird, the wandering albatross.

3.  We provide evidence that climate and population size affected both survival and recruitment age of young individuals although in different ways according to the trait.  We found that early-life survival was mainly affected by population density, whereas recruitment age variation appeared to be better explained by climatic conditions, with a surprising long-term effect of climate.  While population size explained 60% of the variation in juvenile survival, average Southern Annular Mode over the five previous years explained 52% of variation in recruitment age.

4.  Additionally, although early-life survival was consistently negatively affected by population size, the relationship between recruitment age and population size shifted from negative to positive over time from the 1970s to 2000s, showing that density dependence mechanisms can temporarily disappear.

5.  Finally, we found that similar climatic conditions may affect individual performances in opposite ways according to the life stage of individuals.  This result underlines the critical need to assess age specific functional responses to environmental variability to allow accurate demographic predictions.  By revealing the poorly known demographic process of younger age classes, the results of this study improve our understanding of population dynamics of long lived marine species.”

Wandering Albatross at sea, photograph by John Chardine

Reference:

Fay, R., Barbraud, C., Delord, K., & Weimerskirch, H. 2017.  Contrasting effects of climate and population density over time and life-stages in a long-lived seabird.  Functional Ecology DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.12831.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 January 2017

Breeding site of the Critically Endangered Mascarene Petrel found on the island of Reunion

MascarenePetrel

The LIFE + Pétrels project has reported the discovery in November last year of the first known breeding colony of one of the World’s rarest seabirds, the Critically Endangered Mascarene Petrel Psuedobulweria aterrima on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

Mascarene Petrel

Several innovative tools, including infrared binoculars were used to track petrels in flight andlocate landing birds leading to the discovery of an active breeding colony.  The colony was found after abseiling down sheer cliffs within the Saint-Joseph Municipality, in the south of the island (click here).

"The LIFE + Petrels program (2014-2020) aims to halt the decline of endemic petrels in Reunion.  These birds are emblematic of Reunion Island’s exceptional biodiversity.  The project brings together the island’s various stakeholders and actors to save the Petrel, which is currently on the brink of extinction and threatened by introduced predators and light pollution.”  Mascarene Petrels have been regularly found attracted by lights on the island.  A rescue campaign is conducted each year.

Modelling work on Reunion Island showed only eradication of both cats and rats … will effectively save seabird species such as these.  Predator eradication is not currently possible on Reunion Island so for now the LIFE+Petrels team will have to implement other conservation strategies such as predator-proof fencing and ongoing control” (click here).

With thanks to Patrick Pinet, Parc national de La Réunion.

Reference:

Pinet, P., Julie Tourmetz, J., Riethmuller, M., Salamolard, M., Le Corre, M. & Couzi, F.-X. 2016.  Dark side of the moon … and petrels.  6th International Albatross and Petrel Conference, Barcelona, September 2016 Conference Program and Abstracts.  p. 131

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 January 2017

Macquarie’s Black-browed Albatrosses get tracked at sea

This austral summer researchers have added GPS loggers to five globally Near Threatened Black-browed Albatrosses Thalassarche melanophris on Australia’s Macquarie Island.  The study is being led by marine ornithologist Rachael Alderman of the Tasmanian Department Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment (DPIPWE) Marine Conservation Branch.

“In the last month field biologists, Kim Kliska and Penny Pascoe, have successfully taped the miniature devices to the feathers on the back of albatross and the data is [sic] then beamed back while they forage.”

Four of the five loggers have been retrieved so far from the only 50 pairs of Black-browed Albatrosses that breed on Macquarie.  Read more here.

 Black Browed Albatross by Aleks Terauds

Black-browed Albatross, photograph by Aleks Terauds

 “All the data collected is [sic] fed into the International Agreement on the Conservation of Albatross and Petrels to inform conservation measures such as reducing seabird by-catch in fisheries.  Australian sub-Antarctic fisheries are closed during summer, to avoid albatross when they are foraging close to shore to feed their chicks.  The black browed albatross population on Macquarie Island has benefited from the eradication of rabbits, with regrowth of vegetation providing critical nesting habitat and better protection from extreme weather and predators.”

Over winter, satellite tags were used to track ACAP-listed Grey Petrels Procellaria cinerea breeding on Macquarie (click here). 

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 January 2017

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

About ACAP

ACAP Secretariat

119 Macquarie St
Hobart TAS 7000
Australia

Email: secretariat@acap.aq
Tel: +61 3 6165 6674