Three breeding albatrosses get counted on Amsterdam Island

Amsterdam Island from the air, photograph by Thierry Micol

Célia Lesage (Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, Saint-Pierre, France) and colleagues have published in the journal Polar Biology on a seabird survey conducted on France’s sub-Antarctic Amsterdam Island over 2021/22, prior to the 2024 eradication effort directed at alien rodents.  The island’s three breeding albatrosses were included in the survey with counts of occupied nests (Amsterdam Diomedea amsterdamensis 65 pairs, Sooty Phoebetria fusca 515 pairs, Indian Yellow-nosed Thalassarche carteri 29 671 pairs.)

The paper’s abstract follows:

“An invasive predator eradication campaign is planned for 2024 on Amsterdam Island, one of world’s top priority island for seabird conservation. In order to monitor the effects on seabird colonies post-eradication, a survey of burrow-nesting species and population monitoring of albatrosses, penguins, skuas and terns was organised pre-eradication. Several counting techniques and acoustic methods were used to infer presence/absence of burrow-nesting species and to estimate abundance of other species, as well as genetic methods for species identification. In total 14 breeding (or probably breeding) seabird species were detected on Amsterdam Island, among which eight burrowing petrels including two species never described on the island: the Juan Fernandez petrel Pterodroma externa and the sooty sherwater Ardenna grisea. Based on these new data, the introduced mammal eradication campaign on Amsterdam, if successful, will likely be extremely beneficial for seabird conservation, and may also favor the colonization of Amsterdam by new seabird species.”

Amsterdam Albatross – endemic to Amsterdam Island

Read about the completed eradication here.

Reference:

Lesage, C., Cherel, Y., Delord, K., D’orchymont, Q., Fretin, M., Levy, M., Welch, A. & Barbraud, C. 2024.  Pre-eradication updated seabird survey including new records on Amsterdam Island, southern Indian Ocean.  Polar Biology 47: 1093–1105. {PDF here]

03 October 2024