From the Atlantic to the Indian. A Wandering Albatross from Bird Island turns up on Kerguelen

The Bird Island Wandering Albatross on Kerguelen

A male Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans (Vulnerable) bearing UK (British Museum) metal band No. 4004249 on its left leg was photographed near Lac Marville, Courbet Peninsula, Kerguelen Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean on 31 January 2022 by French research volunteer Kevin Guille.  The adult bird was first seen on its own in the Wanderer monitoring colony on the Courbet Peninsula, in the framework of the project “Seabirds and Marine Mammals as Sentinels of Global Change in the Southern Ocean” (Project: 109 ORNITHOECO) supported by the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor).  The bird was then involved in courtship behaviour with an arriving female Wanderer.

A view of the Courbet Peninsula monitoring colony; photographs by Kevin Guille

Following an enquiry by Karine Delord (Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, France), Andy Wood of the British Antarctic Survey replied that Wandering Albatross 4004249 was banded as a chick at Bird Island, South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* in the South Atlantic on 28 September 2009, making it a 12-year-old when resighted by Karine and her colleagues.  Andy also confirmed that after banding the bird has not been seen back on Bird Island.

This is the first time that an interchange of a Wandering Albatross between Bird Island and Kerguelen has been recorded, although there have been a few movements both ways between the French Crozet Islands (farther to the west from Kerguelen) and the South Atlantic island.  Very few records exist of movements between Kerguelen and the South African Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, although there are many interchanges between the Ile de la Possession, Crozet and the Prince Edwards, approximately 1000 km apart.

With thanks to Maëlle Connan, Karine Delord, Richard Phillips and Andy Wood.

Reference:

Cooper, J. & Weimerskirch, H. 2003.  Exchange of Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans between the Prince Edward and Crozet Islands: implications for conservation.  African Journal of Marine Science 25: 519-523.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 July 2022

*A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Georgias del Sur y Islas Sandwich del Sur) and the surrounding maritime areas.