For the last three years ACAP Latest News has been posting illustrated articles in an occasional series that describes the many localities, most of them uninhabited islands, where ACAP-listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters breed around the World.  The series commenced with New Zealand’s Bounty Islands; the most recent account published, the 82nd, is for the main island in the Auckland Island Group.

For Australia, Ecuador, Mexico, Norway and South Africa all their ACAP breeding sites (including ones with now extinct colonies, such as Bouvet Island) have been written up, but for other countries hosting ACAP species, as well as for the Antarctic Continent and for disputed territories, there are still a number of sites to cover.

An appeal is made for authors and photographers to help complete the series.  Here is a partial list of the remaining sites by countries not yet assigned to volunteers:

Chile:  Isla Ildefonso
France:  Iles Apotres, Cochons, de l’Est and Pingouins in the Crozet Island Group
Japan: Mukojima, Ogasawara Islands

New Zealand:  Chatham (translocation site), Forty-Fours and Three Kings

USA: Barking Sands (Kauai), French Frigate Shoals, Gardner Pinnacles, Lisianski, Ka’ula, Necker, Niihau and Pearl & Hermes Reef
Disputed Territories: remaining individual islands in the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)*, South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* and the Senkaku Islands
Antarctic Continent:  remaining colonies of Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus on and around the Antarctic Peninsula.

A white-phase Southern Giant Petrel incubates in Antarctica, photograph by Markus Ritz

For a write-up what is required are:

1.  A brief description of the locality with its name, locality, size, habitat and vegetation,
2.  Information on breeding ACAP-listed species: names, numbers, trends and monitoring efforts,
3.  Conservation status: management plan, nature reserve status and alien control/eradication efforts past present or planned,
4.  Up to eight selected references, and
5.  Five to six photographs with captions showing the locality, its habitats, colonies and ACAP species.

Help is available for co-authoring and editing texts.

With thanks to the many willing helpers who have authored and co-authored breeding site accounts and submitted their photographs to date.  Hoping to hear from more!

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 January 2016

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.

The Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi of Taiaroa Head on New Zealand’s South Island near the city of Dunedin are noteworthy in that they breed on the mainland and can be viewed by the public from the Royal Albatross Centre’s observation building.  The colony and its breeding birds are carefully managed to address such conservation issues as alien predators, fly strike and as the following account from last month shows, overheating.

Northern Royal Albatross pair at Taiaroa Head

“All of Dunedin's albatrosses and their incubating eggs survived Monday's [21 December] heat wave thanks to the breeze and an ingenious sprinkler system.  Taiaroa Head's 29 nesting pairs and their eggs got through the 34.6° C heat unscathed and are due to hatch on 12 January.

Department of Conservation Head Ranger Lyndon Perriman said the wind was a blessing as, on a 20° C day without wind in November, the ground temperature got up to 38° C.  This, combined with the heat of adult birds, created real problems.

The optimal incubation temperature for albatross eggs is 36.4° C, Mr Perriman said.  "The heat [on Monday] certainly didn't help.  The birds were hot but there was [sic] no major concerns.  If there's no wind and the sun is beating down, then that's when the problem comes,'' he said.

A sprinkler system had been devised about five years ago to counter the ground temperature, which was turned on manually when needed.  On Monday, the sprinklers were on, but just for one nest tucked away on the southern side of the headland out of the wind.  "We had an irrigation sprinkler going for a couple of hours,'' Mr Perriman said.  "In the past we've had birds die from heat exhaustion.  If there was no wind, it would have been absolutely diabolical out there.''

The colony started [this season] with 35 eggs, of which 32 were fertile.  Two eggs were lost due to accidental breaking by the nesting parents and the other was an embryonic death related to temperature or infection.”

Source: Otago Daily Times, 23 December 2015.

Last season a total of 32 eggs was laid, resulting in 27 chicks fledging.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 January 2016

Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis breed at a number of coastal localities on the Hawaiian island of Kauai as has been reported in the ACAP Breeding Sites series.  One of the most unusual perhaps is within the suburb of Princeville where birds breed in private gardens and on golf courses.  Most Princeville albatrosses are colour-banded and dedicated “civilian scientists” Cathy Granholm and Bob Waid have been monitoring and reporting on the breeding attempts from nest construction though egg laying and chick rearing to fledging since at least 2011.

This season eggs were first reported laid in Princeville on 24 November, with the first birds arriving from around the 10th (click here).  Follow Cathy’s and Bob’s websites to see how the Princeville Laysans fare this season (and check out previous years).

Laysan Albatrosses gather in a Princeville garden, photograph by Bob Dowd

An “Albatross Cam” directed at a Kauai Laysan Albatross nest is expected to go live in a few weeks for the new season.

Selected reference:

Waid, R. 2005.The Majestic Albatross. Images of Kauai's Beloved Seabirds.  Honolulu: Mutual Publishing. 51 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 January 2016

Rachel Buxton (Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology on the recovery of seven species of burrowing petrels (Fluttering Shearwater Puffinus gavia, Flesh-footed Shearwater P. carneipes, Little Shearwater P. assimilis, Sooty Shearwater P. griseus, Grey-faced Petrel Pterodroma macroptera gouldi, Pycroft’s Petrel P. pycrofti and Common Diving Petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix) following eradication of rats on New Zealand islands.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The size and distribution of colonies of burrow-nesting petrels is thought to be limited partly by the availability of suitable breeding habitat and partly by predation.  Historically, the availability of safe nesting habitat was restricted in New Zealand, due to the introduction of rats by humans.  More recently, however, habitat has been restored by rat eradication.  Petrel colony growth is mediated by both positive and negative density dependence, although it is unclear if, or how, density dependence will affect patterns in post-eradication colony recovery.  Here, using burrow density as a proxy for relative abundance, we tested whether petrel colonies increase in density or area after rat eradication by sampling along a chronosequence of (1) five islands from which rats were eliminated 1 to 26 years ago, (2) two islands that never had rats, and (3) an island with rats still present, while controlling for habitat availability.  We also measured a time series of burrow densities in plots on each island to compare temporal changes after rat eradication.  Using Bayesian hierarchical modelling, after controlling for nesting habitat, we found that mean burrow density increased with time since rat eradication.  Burrows remained clustered (i.e. spatially structured), but became more randomly distributed on islands with more time since eradication.  Point density mapping indicated that colony extent increased with time since rat eradication, with colonies filling over 70% of surveyed areas on islands by 25 years after eradication.  Increases in burrow density and colony area, but maintenance of clustered distribution, suggest both positive and negative density dependence may operate during colony expansion. Understanding patterns in petrel colony recovery is important, not only due to the indispensable role of petrels as island ecosystem engineers, reflecting the recovery of ecosystem functioning, but also to help guide post-eradication monitoring strategies.”

Flesh-footed Shearwater, photograph by Barry Baker

Reference:

Buxton, R., Taylor, G., Jones, C., Lyver, P.O’B, Moller, H., Cree, A. & Towns, D. 2016.  Spatio-temporal changes in density and distribution of burrow-nesting seabird colonies after rat eradication.  New Zealand Journal of Ecology 40(1).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 03 January 2016