The annual Laysan Albatross egg swap takes place in Hawaii

During the egg swap, all eggs get "candled" for fertility

The annual egg-swap exercise has taken place once more on the Hawaiian island of Kauai by the environmental NGO Pacific Rim Conservation who write on their Facebook page:  “The week before Christmas is always a busy one for us.  During that week we receive up to 45 Laysan Albatross [Phoebastria immutabilis] eggs from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, where the adults nest next to an aircraft runway.  Since large birds and large planes are a bad combination, we are given the eggs, and then they are placed in wild "foster nests" across Kauai and Oahu whose natural eggs have died.  We determine whether eggs are alive by candling them and looking for the embryo.

Egg swap in action on Oahu; photographs from Pacific Rim Conservation

Watch two short video clips by Hob Osterlund of Allene Henderson of Pacific Rim Conservation replacing a fertile egg after candling and replacing an infertile egg with a fertile one

https://www.facebook.com/hob.osterlund/videos/458034985868200

https://www.facebook.com/hob.osterlund/videos/410293000793815

Access previous egg swap posts here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 December 2021

2021-12-24 00:00:00