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A complete-island count of the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena was completed during February/March 2013 on the United Kingdom’s Gough Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha group in the South Atlantic.  As is now well known Gough’s Tristan Albatrosses face a yearly onslaught from the island’s “killer” House Mice Mus musculus, which attack their downy chicks every winter, leading to an unsustainably low breeding success.

The whole-island count realized a total of 1747 incubating pairs.  This total is higher than the 1421 nests recorded during the 2012 season (click here), but is still lower than the numbers recorded during 2001-2005 (average 2095 occupied nests).

Monitoring breeding success has continued on the island in long-term study colonies with colour-banded birds and marked nests of Tristan Albatrosses and ACAP-listed Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses Thalassarche chlororhynchos, Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria fusca and Southern Giant Petrels Macronectes giganteus.

A Tristan Albatross chick gets attacked by mice on Gough Island; it later died of its injuries

Photograph by Ross Wanless

Acknowledgements

Field work on Gough in 2012/13 is being undertaken by Chris Bell and Mara Nydegger of the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.  Research on ACAP-listed albatrosses and giant petrels on Gough Island is supported by a grant to the RSPB from the UK's Overseas Territories Environment Programme and the UK Government's Darwin Initiative programme, and logistically by the South African Department of Environmental Affairs.

Selected References:

Cuthbert, R.J., Cooper, J. & Ryan, P.G. in press.  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

Cuthbert, R.[J.], Hilton, G.[M.], Ryan, P.[G.] & Tuck, G.N. 2005. At-sea distribution of breeding Tristan Albatrosses Diomedea dabbenena and potential interactions with pelagic longline fishing in the South Atlantic Ocean. Biological Conservation 121: 345-355.

Cuthbert, R.[J]., Sommer, E.[S.], Ryan, P.[G]., Cooper, J. & Hilton, G.[M.] 2004.  Demography and conservation of the Tristan Albatross Diomedea [exulans] dabbenena.  Biological Conservation 117: 471-481.

Ryan, P.G., Cooper, J. & Glass, J.P. 2001. Population status, breeding biology and conservation of the Tristan Albatross Diomedea [exulans] dabbenena. Bird Conservation International 11: 35-48.

Wanless, R.M., Ryan, P.G., Altwegg, R., Angel, A., Cooper, J. Cuthbert, R.[J.] & Hilton, G.M. 2009. From both sides: dire demographic consequences of carnivorous mice and longlining for the Critically Endangered Tristan Albatrosses on Gough Island. Biological Conservation 142: 1710-1718.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 18 April 2013