In the last two years fertile eggs of the Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis from the Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands on the Hawaiian island of Kauai have been collected and following artificial incubation and fostering, the ensuing chicks have been hand-reared until fledging at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on the nearby island of Oahu.

Laysan Albatross chicks being hand reared under shade at the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, photograph by Lindsay Young 

This project is being led by the NGO Pacific Rim Conservation with the twin aims of establishing a new breeding colony that will not be at risk to sea-level rise, as are the species’ major breeding sites on the low-lying North Western Pacific Islands (click here) and reducing the risks of bird strikes at the missile facility (removing eggs should lead to lowered recruitment and eventually to colony shrinkage).

The third year of the translocation project is now underway.    A total of 61 eggs was collected from the missile range, of which 47 were deemed to be fertile after candling on site by Pacific Rim Conservation.  Fourteen of these eggs were fostered out to Laysan Albatrosses on Kauai, including female-female pairs with infertile eggs (click here).

Most of the remaining 33 eggs are in foster care at Oahu’s Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve, with a few in an artificial incubator until foster nests are found. The chicks will be fed by hand for five months on a purée of fish, squid, Pedialyte (an oral rehydrant) and vitamins (click here).

In the first year of the project the 10 translocated Laysan eggs that hatched in an artificial incubator all successfully fledged; in the second year 19 of the 20 chicks that hatched fledged.

Hand feeding a Laysan Albatross, photograph courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service 

In addition, 15 Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes chicks will be transferred from Midway Atoll to the James Campbell NWR in the middle of next month and hand-reared along with their cousins (click here), with the aim of creating a two-species colony.

Meanwhile over in New Zealand plans are breeding made to transfer another batch of Chatham Albatross Thalassarche eremita chicks from their sole breeding locality on the Pyramid to Point Gap in the Chatham Islands in an endeavour to establish a second colony.  This will be the fourth year of the translocation project; one more year is planned (click here).

A translocated Chatham Albatross chick gets hand fed at Point Gap, photographs courtesy of the Chatham Island Taiko Trust

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 January 2017, updated 27 January 2017

ACAP Latest News has previously reported that introduced House Mice Mus musculus on Sand Island, part of the USA’s Midway Atoll in the North Pacific, had taken to attacking Laysan Phoebastria immutabilis and Black-footed P. nigripes Albatrosses in the 2015/16 breeding season, resulting in a number of mortalities (click here).

Mouse attacks on Midway albatrosses during the 2015/16 breeding season, photographs by US Fish and Wildlife Service and Robert Taylor

News is now in for the latest (2016/17) breeding season that mice attacks on albatrosses are continuing and are spreading over more of the island - as extracts below taken from a blog show.

Areas where albatrosses have been attacked by mice on Sand Island, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge as of 15 January 2017.  Areas with green borders indicate areas where only abandoned nests were found but no bitten or dead birds.  Red triangles represent individual dead or bitten birds 

“On December 4, while out checking birds in areas where mice had attacked the previous year, [U.S.] Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Meg Duhr-Schultz found several bitten birds, removing any possibility that the events of 2015/2016 were some kind of El Niño-driven anomaly. Staff and volunteers were deployed over the next few days to survey other parts of the island and more attacks were discovered. In less than a week the area impacted by mouse attacks had exceeded the total area affected during all of the previous year. And the fact that the mouse attacks were noticed several weeks earlier was of real concern.  Again, the Fish and Wildlife Service had to quickly figure out what to do and the decision was made to take steps to reduce the mice populations in the affected areas.  So far the actions that the Fish and Wildlife have taken seem to be having a positive effect. The abundance of mice in the impacted area dropped sharply in areas where rodenticide was applied [by hand].”

“Over 1200 bitten birds have been discovered, 211 of which have died.  Nearly one thousand abandoned nests have been documented. Mice may also be having impacts on other seabirds here but it would be more difficult to detect, especially for the burrow-nesting species.”

“As the only atoll within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument that still harbors lingering populations of invasive rodents, there have been plans to eradicate mice from Midway Atoll for some time.  The discovery that mice are harming the albatrosses should only strengthen the case for their removal and expedite the [eradication] project’s implementation.  First steps were, in fact, taken just last November when a team of biologists and invasive species experts from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the non-profit organization Island Conservation visited Midway [to] begin a study of the project’s feasibility.”

A dead Laysan Albatross found during the attacks of 2016/2017 next to an abandoned nest; photograph by Robert Taylor

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 January 2016

A colour-banded Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans was given a second chance after landing on the deck of a fishing trawler in New Zealand waters last year on 25 June.  The bird was first banded as a breeding adult male in the long-term monitoring colony above Macaroni Bay and towards Archway Bay on South Africa’s Marion Island on 22 February 2016 with metal band J-26722 and white colour band Z21.  It was last recorded ashore brooding a chick on 26 March 2016.  By 30 April the breeding attempt had failed, thus allowing the now “off-duty” failed breeder to travel as far as New Zealand.

J-26722/W-Z21 aboard the Otakou

As reported by onboard observer Susan Chalmers to the South African Bird Ringing Unit (SAFRING), the Wanderer was caught aboard the Sealord trawler Otakou at Port Nelson in Tasman Bay, New Zealand at 41° 14’S; 173° 14’E, 124 days after being banded, 91 days since last being seen at its nest and 56 days since nest failure was first recorded.  The great-circle distance between banding site and recapture locality is 1735 km (click here).

Biz Bell of Wildlife Management International writes to ACAP Latest News “Looks like it landed on the vessel for a rest and got grounded by lack of wind”.  The albatross was released overboard as the Otakou left Port Nelson harbour the same day as its capture.

J-26722/W-Z21 gets released

Photographs by Susan Chalmers, Department of Conservation/Ministry for Primary Industries Observer aboard the Otakou

Sealord's trawler Otakou

With luck W-Z21 will return to ‘Macci Bay’ on Marion Island and attempt to breed once more in the study colony I set up in the early 1980s.

With thanks to Biz Bell, Wildlife Management International Ltd; Dane Paijmans, SAFRING; and Stefan Schoombie & Kim Stevens, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town.

John Cooper, ACAP information Officer, 20 February 2017

Martin Berg (Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden) has produced Batchelor's and Master’s degree reports on aspects of the breeding biology and at-sea movements of the Fluttering Shearwater Puffinus gavia, a New Zealand endemic.

The reports’ abstracts follow:

Breeding biology

“The fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia) is an abundant seabird endemic to breeding colonies in northern and central New Zealand. The species remains poorly studied, and here we present the first study to examine its breeding biology in detail.  Fluttering shearwater nests were monitored daily from laying in September 2015 to fledging in January 2016 on Burgess Island (Mokohinau Islands group) in the outer Hauraki Gulf, northern New Zealand. Burrows were generally simple and non-branched. Eggs were laid over a period of 39 days with laying peaking 12th September. Incubation was 50 ± 3.7 days and chicks fledged after an average of 74 ± 4.3 days, from late December to the end of January. Chick development corresponds to the pattern observed for other Procellariiformes, gaining body mass rapidly to a maximum of 115% of adult mass, and then losing weight until fledging. Chicks were fed most nights throughout chick-rearing, indicating adult birds have access to a stable food supply close to the colony. Breeding success was 63.8% and similar to other Puffinus species. This study provides baseline biological data for a poorly studied, yet common, New Zealand endemics seabird. The obtained new information will allow for further ecological investigations and improved conservation management for the species. ”

At-sea tracking

“We present the first study of the year-round distribution, activity patterns, and habitat use of one of New Zealand’s most common seabirds, the fluttering shearwater (Puffinus gavia). Seven individuals from Burgess Island and one individual from Long Island were successfully tracked with combined light-saltwater immersion loggers for one to three years. Our tracking data confirms that fluttering shearwaters employ different overwintering dispersal strategies, where three out of eight individuals, for at least one of the three years that they were being tracked, crossed the Tasman Sea to forage over coastal waters along eastern Tasmania and southeastern Australia. Resident birds stayed confined to productive waters of northern and central New Zealand year-round. Although birds frequently foraged over pelagic shelf waters, the majority of tracking locations were found over shallow waters close to the coast. All birds foraged predominantly in daylight and frequently visited the colony at night throughout the year. We found no significant inter-seasonal differences in the activity patterns, or between migratory and resident individuals. Although further studies of intercolony variation in different age groups will be necessary, this study provides novel insights into dispersal and foraging ecology of the fluttering shearwater, which provide important baseline information for conservation as well as for further ecological studies.”

Fluttering Shearwater

References:

Berg, M. 2016.  Breeding biology of fluttering shearwaters (Puffinus gavia) on Burgess Island in northern New Zealand.  Lund: Lund University Libraries Bachelors Student Paper.  24 pp.

Berg, M. 2016.  Year-round distribution, activity patterns and habitat use of a poorly studied pelagic seabird, the fluttering shearwater Puffinus gavia.  Lund: Lund University Libraries Masters Student Paper.  30 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 January 2017