Researchers from the EU Life+ Malta Seabird Project run by BirdLife Malta have recorded Yelkouan Shearwaters Puffinus yelkouan using an artificial nest box placed at one of this threatened seabirds breeding colonies on Malta’s inaccessible sea-cliffs.  LIFE Montecristo 2010, another EU-funded project looking at Yelkouan Shearwaters that breed in Tuscany Archipelago of Italy has also had a similar success trialling nest boxes.  Together, these are the first examples of Yelkouan Shearwaters using nest boxes.

“Normally Yelkouans nest deep in the dark, narrow crevices and caves in the sea-facing cliffs around the islands, which makes their behaviour on their nest very difficult to observe.  If more of these seabirds prove willing to take to nest boxes, it should make it possible for researchers to gain insights into previously unobserved aspects of their breeding ecology.”

Yelkouan Shearwater, photograph by Matthew Borg Cardona

Click here to read more.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 May 2014

The Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus breeds mainly on the Japanese island of Torishima (Izu Islands) and on Minami-kojima in the disputed Senkaku Islands.  A single STAL pair has bred successfully several times on Eastern Island, part of the USA’s Midway Atoll, and a faithful female-female pair on the USA’s Kure Atoll continues to lay infertile eggs and await a passing male.  In addition 70 chicks translocated over four years (2007-2011) from Torishima have nearly all successfully fledged from Mukojima in the Japanese Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands with the aim to establish a new colony.  At least two eggs have been laid at the translocation site but did not hatch (click here)

Now to add to these five localities comes news of a likely new breeding site for the Short-tailed Albatross.

On 7 May this year researchers from the Ogasawara Branch of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government visiting uninhabited Nakodojima five kilometres south of Mukojima discovered what appeared to be a Short-tailed Albatross chick close to fledging.  The bird was colour banded and a feather sample taken for DNA analysis to aid in its positive identification (click here).

No parents were present at the time but a metal-banded STAL in adult plumage was observed in January with a younger bird being seen previously on the island.  On 11 May 2012 a colour-banded four-year old was reported on Nakodojima.  The parents of the newly-discovered chick may come from these three birds.

Nakodojima supports breeding Black-footed Albatrosses P. nigripes (967 pairs in 2006 according to the ACAP Data Portal).  In 2007 10 Black-footed Albatross chicks were successfully transferred from Nakodojima to Mukojima, preliminary to the STAL translocation from Torishima that commenced the next year.  Nine of the 10 Black-foot chicks fledged and some have seen back courting at the translocation site (click here).

 Feral goats have been removed but Black Rats Rattus rattus remain on Nakodojima.

Translocated Short-tailed Albatrosses on Mukojima, photograph by Tomohiro Deguchi

With thanks to Tomohiro Deguchi, Yamashina Institute for Ornithology for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 May 2014, updated 26 May 2014

Sievert Rohwer (Department of Biology and Burke Museum of Natural History, University of Washington, Seattle, USA) and colleagues have “pre-published” in the on-line open-access resource PeerJPrePrints on the link between hybridization and rape in Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Conspecific rape often increases male reproductive success.  However, the haste and aggression of forced copulations suggests that males may sometimes rape heterospecific females, thus making rape a likely, but undocumented, source of hybrids between broadly sympatric species.  We present evidence that heterospecific rape may be the source of hybrids between Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes, and P. immutabilis, respectively).  Extensive field studies have shown that paired (but not unpaired) males of both of these albatross species use rape as a supplemental reproductive strategy.  Between species differences in size, timing of laying, and aggressiveness suggest that Black-footed Albatrosses should be more successful than Laysan Albatrosses in heteropspecific [sic] rape attempts, and male Black-footed Albatrosses have been observed attempting to force copulations on female Laysan Albatrosses.  Nuclear markers showed that six hybrids we studied were F1s and mitochondrial markers shoed that male Black-footed Albatrosses sired all six hybrids.  The siring asymmetry found in our hybrids may have long persisted because an IM analysis suggests that long-term gene exchange between these species has been from Black-footed Albatrosses into Laysan Albatrosses.  If hybrids are sired in heterospecific rapes, they presumably would be raised and sexually imprinted on Laysan Albatrosses, and two unmated hybrids in a previous study courted only Laysan Albatrosses.

Laysan-Black-footed Albatross hybrid, photograph by Lindsay Young

Click here and here to read two previous postings in ACAP Latest News on hybrid Black-footed and Laysan Albatrosses.

Reference:

Rohwer, S., Harris, R.B. & Walsh, H.E. 2014.  Rape and the prevalence of hybrids in broadly sympatric species: a case study using albatrosses.  PeerJPrePrints  27 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 May 2014

Lorna Deppe (School of Biological Sciences, Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series on at-sea GPS tracking of Chatham Albatrosses Thalassarche eremita.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The analysis of environmental characteristics to explain the distribution of endangered seabirds can aid in the identification of important areas at sea and lead to more effective conservation.  We used high resolution Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking data to study the at-sea patterns of chick-rearing Chatham albatrosses Thalassarche eremita across 3 years (2007, 2008 and 2009) in relation to bathymetry, slope, sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration. Birds mostly foraged within 400 to 600 km of their colony, located within the southeastern part of New Zealand’s continental shelf, the Chatham Rise.  Despite little spatial overlap across years, foraging areas were predominantly associated with waters of less than 2500 m depth, slopes of 1 to 4°, SST between 15 and 16°C, and chl a concentrations >1 mg m^-3 in all years.  According to boosted regression tree models, no single habitat variable particularly explained the spatial occurrence of foraging areas.  However, bathymetry was of higher relative importance in 2008 and 2009, while chl a was relatively more important in 2007, a year of increased primary productivity.  Our results suggest that chick-rearing Chatham albatrosses rely on resources that are generally predictable in location, but that they also respond to fine-scale changes within their foraging environment.  Incorporating such dynamics into conservation planning might be best addressed by mitigating incidental bycatch in fishing operations, as well as implementing a protected area southeast of the breeding site, which we identified as a key foraging zone.”

Chatham Albatrosses, photograph by Graham Robertson

For an ACAP Latest News item on Lorna’s PhD on Chatham and other albatrosses click here.

Reference:

Deppe, L., McGregor, K.F., Tomasetto, F., Briskie, J.V. & Scofield, R.P. 2014.  Distribution and predictability of foraging areas in breeding Chatham albatrosses Thalassarche eremita in relation to environmental characteristics. Marine Ecology Progress Series 498: 287-301.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 May 2014