The first aerial photographic survey of Endangered Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses Thalassarche chlororhynchos on the United Kingdom’s Gough Island in the South Atlantic was undertaken on 27 September this year during incubation time as part of South Africa’s annual relief of its weather station on the island.  The survey team consisted of Alex Bond of the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Bird’s Centre for Conservation Science (with financial support from ACAP’s grant awards for 2014), and Peter Ryan, Delia Davies and Ben Dilley of the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

The need for an island-wise survey was identified by ACAP’s Advisory Committee at its 2013 meeting (AC7) in La Rochelle, France, given that previous estimates have been based on ground work only, which does not allow access to all the rugged island’s breeding sites.

A Bell 212 helicopter operated by Starlite Aviation was used for the survey, flying from South Africa’s Antarctic supply and research vessel, the S.A. Agulhas II.  The single flight lasted about 25 minutes.  Not all areas of the island were covered due to low cloud in the west.  Three observers used hand-held cameras through an open door to obtain multiple sets of photos.  In addition, two GoPro cameras were fitted below the helicopter with the aim of helping orientation and the merging of photos.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross on Gough Island, photograph by Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless

The view from the helicopter during the survey, photograph by Delia Davies

According to Alex Bond work has now started to merge the overlapping aerial photos using software to form photomontages, capitalising on recent advances in imaging quality and processing.  Apparently occupied nests (AONs) can then be relatively accurately counted from these montages on-screen.  However, because of Gough’s thick vegetation in places, some occupied nests will not show up on aerial photographs so extensive ground truthing has been undertaken on the island to allow for correction factors to be applied.

Poor flying weather halted a similar survey planned for the main island of Tristan da Cunha from going ahead.  This has now been rescheduled for September 2015.  Tristan is thought to be the largest breeding site for the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, but the most recent population estimate (16 000-30 000 breeding pairs) dates as far back as the early 1970s.

Click here to read more of the RSPB’s conservation work in the Tristan da Cunha group of islands.

Research and monitoring of albatrosses in the Tristan-Gough Islands are supported financially and logistically by ACAP, UK's Darwin Initiative, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and National Research Foundation and Ovenstone Agencies and takes place with the approval of the Tristan Conservation Department.

With thanks to Alex Bond and Peter Ryan for information.

Selected Literature:

Cuthbert, R.J., Cooper, J. & Ryan, P.G. 2014.  Population trends and breeding success of albatrosses and giant petrels at Gough Island in the face of at-sea and on-land threats.  Antarctic Science 26: 163-171.

Cuthbert, R., Ryan, P.G., Cooper, J. & Hilton, G. 2003.  Demography and population trends of the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross.  The Condor 105: 439-452.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 October 2014

Airam Rodríguez (Phillip Island Nature Parks, Cowes, Victoria, Australia) and colleagues have published in the open-access online journal PloS ONE on light pollution affecting Short-tailed Shearwaters Puffinus tenuirostris.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Light pollution is increasing around the world and altering natural nightscapes with potential ecological and evolutionary consequences. A severe ecological perturbation caused by artificial lights is mass mortalities of organisms, including seabird fledglings that are attracted to lights at night on their first flights to the sea. Here, we report on the number of fledging short-tailed shearwaters Ardenna tenuirostris found grounded in evening and morning rescue patrols conducted at Phillip Island, Australia, during a 15-year period (1999–2013). We assessed factors affecting numbers of grounded birds and mortality including date, moon phase, wind direction and speed, number of visitors and holiday periods. We also tested experimentally if birds were attracted to lights by turning the lights off on a section of the road. Of 8871 fledglings found, 39% were dead or dying. This mortality rate was 4–8 times higher than reported elsewhere for other shearwater species, probably because searching for fledglings was part of our systematic rescue effort rather than the opportunistic rescue used elsewhere. Thus, it suggests that light-induced mortality of seabirds is usually underestimated. We rescued more birds (dead and alive) in peak fledging, moonless and windy nights. Mortality increased through the fledging period, in the mornings and with increased traffic on holiday periods. Turning the road lights off decreased the number of grounded birds (dead and alive). While moon, wind and time are uncontrolled natural constraints, we demonstrated that reduction of light pollution and better traffic management can mitigate artificial light-induced mortality.”

Short-tailed Shearwater, photograph by Mark Carey

Reference:

Rodríguez, A., Burgan, G., Dann, P., Jessop, R., Negro, J.J. & Chiaradia, A. 2014.  Fatal attraction of Short-Tailed Shearwaters to artificial lights.  PLoS ONE doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110114.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 October 2014

David Duffy and Paula Capece (Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, Department of Botany, University of Hawai’i Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA) write in the open-access journal Marine Ornithology on the dangers of mongooses preying upon Vulnerable Hawaiian Petrels Pterodroma sandwichensis and Endangered Newell’s Shearwaters Puffinus newelli on the North Pacific island of Kaua’i.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Small Indian Mongooses Herpestes javanicus have until recently been absent from the island of Kaua’i, Hawai’i.  In anticipation of required management, we examine evidence that mongooses may be a significantly more dangerous predator than cats Felis catus for burrowing seabirds, particularly the endangered Hawaiian Petrel Pterodroma sandwichensis and threatened Newell’s Shearwater Puffinus newelli.  Mongooses are small enough to enter burrows, allowing them to take eggs, nestlings and adults.  In contrast, cats appear too broad to enter any but the widest burrows, so they tend to attack adults and young when these come to the burrow mouth.  Given that these seabird species no longer persist in any numbers at low elevations on islands where mongooses are present, and that Kaua’i is one of the lowest of the main Hawaiian islands, if resources are limited, local control or eradication of mongooses would be a higher priority for management than control of cats or rats Rattus spp., although control of just one predator might result in increases in the others.  The most important management action is to keep mongooses off islands where they are not already established.”

Hawaiian Petrel, photograph by André Raine

Reference:

Duffy, D. C. & Capece, P.I. 2014.  Depredation of endangered burrowing seabirds in Hawai’i: management priorities.  Marine Ornithology 42: 149-152.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 October 2014

Pink Floyd was an English rock band formed in London in 1965.  In 1970 the band released “Echoes”, a composition that includes “instrumental passages, sound effects and musical improvisation”.

The lyrics of Echoes, written by band member Roger Waters, commence with an albatross hanging “motionless upon the air”, although the words that follow seem to refer more to under the ocean than above it.

Wandering Albatross, photograph by John Chardine

Lyrics of Echoes by Pink Floyd

Overhead the albatross
Hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
An echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine.

And no one called us to the land
And no one knows the where's or why's.
Something stirs and something tries
Starts to climb toward the light.

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me.
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand
The best I can.

And no one called us to the land
And no one crosses there alive.
No one speaks and no one tries
No one flies around the sun....

Almost everyday you fall
Upon my waking eyes,
Inviting and inciting me
To rise.
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning.

And no one sings me lullabyes
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky....

Click here to listen to Echoes.

Pink Floyd achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music.  “Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, and elaborate live shows, they are one of the most commercially successful and musically influential groups in the history of popular music.”

Click here to listen to the instrumental “Albatross” by Peter Green of the band Fleetwood Mac, first performed in 1969 – only one year earlier than Echoes but a very different composition.  Compare them and see what you think.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 October 2014