A Royal Cam parent feeds its chick

Taiaroa Head/Pukekura on New Zealand’s South Island is one of the very few places where the general public can view breeding albatrosses.  Along with the ‘Royal Cam’ that streams activities at an occupied nest to the world it’s no surprise that the colony of Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi (globally Endangered) gets headlines in the media, most notably in recent days from a Department of Conservation video clip that has gone viral of an adult tumbling onto its back with its legs flailing in the air after a bad landing.

This breeding season is expected to be a good one.  Back in December last year ACAP Latest News reported that 41 eggs (the second highest number of eggs recorded) had been laid in the mainland colony at the tip of the Otago Peninsula – although this figure does not include any eggs laid by female-female pairs.  After the usual long incubation period all the fertile eggs have now hatched with 33 chicks present in the colony following a few early deaths.  Following a query from ACAP Latest News, the Royal Albatross Centre replied on its Facebook page: “We usually have a few infertile eggs each season and occasionally adults break eggs (big feet get in the way) or embryos die before or not long after hatching.”  In detail, 36 eggs hatched from the 41 laid, giving a hatching success of 87.8%.

An eggshell collected for DNA gender testing, photograph by Sharyn Broni

Following hatching, the fresh eggshells are collected in the intensively managed colony.  These allow for DNA tests of adhering blood vessels by Dunedin’s nearby University of Otago to assign gender.  Of the 33 chicks, 17 are females and 15 males with one unknown due to an inadequate sample.  Followers of the Royal Cam will be interested to know that this season’s featured chick – as yet unnamed - is a female.  The annual Name the Royal Cam Chick Competition is sure to follow soon!

Information from Sharyn Broni, Department of Conservation Biodiversity Ranger.via Facebook pages

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 March 2021, updated 22 March 2021

Northern Giant Petrel 131-40970 recovered in New Zealand, photograph by Jamie Quirk

A Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (globally Least Concern) has been found 40 years after it was banded as a chick with number 131-40970 on 23 January 1981 by the Australian Antarctic Division at Mawson Point, Macquarie Island.  Forty years later, on 5 February 2021, the bird was recovered “at the end of its life” by a New Zealand Department of Conservation Biodiversity Ranger at Waikanae Beach, about 50 km north of Wellington, New Zealand, over 2200 km from its banding location.  According to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) the recovery is the oldest Australian-banded Northern Giant Petrel on record.

“This band represents the longest time elapsed between banding and recovery recorded for this species and is one of the oldest birds ever recovered under the Scheme.  The maximum longevity record of an Australian-banded bird is held by a Short-tailed Shearwater [Ardenna tenuirostris] which was recovered 48 years and 3.8 months after banding.  The ABBBS holds 13 400 banding records for Northern Giant Petrels, of which 564 have been recovered.  The average time elapsed between banding and recovery is 8 years and 7.6 months.”

Read more here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 19 March 2021

A long-term conservation project: “Reintroduction of Black-footed Albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) from Midway Atoll National Refuge, USA to Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve, Mexico” has been initiated by the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Pacific Rim Conservation (PRC), together with Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP) and the Mexican environmental NGO Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI).  The globally Near Threatened Black-footed Albatross has been reported  breeding in the past (one chick in 1998) on Isla Guadalupe, some 260 km off the west coast of Baja California.  Since 2000 GECI biologists have recorded sightings of individual Black-footed Albatrosses on the island and its islets and many in surrounding waters, but no breeding has been recorded.  Introduced feral cats are now being removed from the island, thus helping the island’s existing populations of Laysan Albatrosses P. immutabilis and other seabirds.  According to GECI's Federico Méndez Sánchez cat eradication is close to completion; good news for all the island's seabirds, including  reintroduced Black-footed Albatrosses.

A translocated Black-footed Albatross chick with an adult decoy on Isla Guadalupe, photograph by Robby Kohley

The project has recently produced a media release, parts of which follow describing the translocation activities to date and its plans for the future:

“Reintroduction of the Black-footed Albatross is being carried out through the transfer of eggs and chicks from Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to the Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve.  The techniques used in the project are based on the most up-to-date ethical and scientific standards developed and adapted by Pacific Rim Conservation during previous similar projects in the Hawaiian Islands. The Black-footed Albatross eggs will be cross-fostered into Laysan Albatross nests, and the chicks will be hand-raised.  To minimize any impacts to the source population on Midway, the eggs and chicks were collected from nests next to the ocean, where they were at risk of being washed away by high waves."

Mexican and USA members of the reintroduction team on Isla Guadalupe

"The first 21 eggs were flown from Midway to Honolulu by the USFWS on 17 January 2021, and then to San Diego, California by PRC. Then, they were imported into Mexico on 18 January and flown to Guadalupe Island by PRC, GECI and CONANP staff.  The eggs were placed in foster nests of Laysan Albatrosses in which the natural egg was infertile.  In early February, 18 of the 21 eggs hatched, representing an 86% hatching success rate, similar to the rate in natural Laysan Albatross nests on Guadalupe and in other inter-island translocation projects in Hawaii by PRC.

On 18 February, nine Black-footed Albatross chicks were imported from Midway and arrived in Mexico and were successfully released on Guadalupe, where they will be raised by a team of biologists and veterinarians from PRC and GEC.  The 27 Black-footed Albatross chicks are expected to fledge from Guadalupe in June.  For the next couple of years (2022-2023), the binational team aims to move up to 42 eggs and 25 chicks per year in order to have at least 100 individuals to form the new breeding colony on Guadalupe."

A Black-footed Albatross chick being fostered by a pair of Laysan Albatrosses on Isla Guadalupe, photograph by J.A. Soriano, GECI

"Because Black-footed Albatrosses are faithful to the place where they hatched or were raised from a young age it is expected that this generation of chicks will return to nest on Guadalupe when they are mature.  The reintroduction of Black-footed Albatrosses is a long-term project because albatrosses are long-lived; they will spend their first few years at sea continuously and are expected to begin returning to Guadalupe in three to five years and to begin nesting there in eight to nine years.”

ACAP Latest News will follow the project with interest and bring readers further news as it becomes available.  For a Spanish version of the media release please contact GECI's  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; see also a report on the reintroduction exercise in Spanish here and watch a news video, also in Spanish, with informative still photos of the translocation exercise included.

With thanks to Federico Méndez Sánchez, Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas and Eric Vanderwerf, Pacific Rim Conservation.

Reference:

Pitman, R.L. & Balance, L.T. 2002.  The changing status of marine birds breeding at San Benedicto Island, Mexico.  Wilson Bulletin 114: 11-19.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 March 2021

Illustration from the Freeman Seabird Preserve website

David Hyrenbach (Hawai‘i Pacific University) and Michelle Hester (Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge) study Wedge-tailed Shearwaters or 'Ua'u kani Ardenna pacifica; Least Concern) in the Freeman Seabird Preserve on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. They write of the most recent breeding season in the Hawaii Audubon Society journal ‘Elepaio:

“We report on the ongoing monitoring and restoration efforts of the Freeman Seabird Preserve by Hawaii Audubon Society and Hawai‘i Pacific University since 2009, share findings from the 2020 breeding season, and briefly discuss the plans for future monitoring, habitat restoration, and predator control at the site.  This year we documented 358 active nests.  This year’s nest count is the highest to date, surpassing the previous peak documented in 2019.”

A Wedge-tailed Shearwater chick inside a ceramic nest, photograph by David Hyrenbach

Breeding performance in occupied ceramic nests for the second year since their establishment was similar to that of existing natural and roof tile nests in the preserve (80.0 % (8/10) in the ceramic nests and 72.7% (48/66) in the control nests).  Additional restoration and management efforts in 2021 will involve monitoring the colony and enhancing breeding habitat.

Read more on the ceramic nests and on the 2019 breeding season here.

Reference:

Hyrenbach, K.D. & Hester, M. 2021.  2020 shearwater nesting at Freeman Seabird Preserve: highest breeding pairs, average chick success, and increasing occupation of ceramic homes.  ‘Elepaio 81(2): 13-14.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 17 March 2021