Wisdom, a female Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis considered to be at least 67 years old based on her band history, has returned once more to Midway Atoll in the North Pacific.

“U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge staff spotted Wisdom and her mate, Akeakamai, near their nest in late November, and on December 13 staff confirmed that Akeakamai was on the nest incubating an egg. Wisdom and her mate return to the same nest site on Midway Atoll each year. Since 2006, Wisdom has successfully raised and fledged at least nine chicks…” (click here).

Wisdom's mate stands over her egg last month; a photograph of Wisdom for the current breeding season is awaited

Photograph courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Read more about Wisdom’s annual breeding activity in ACAP Latest News here.

View photos and videos of Wisdom here.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 01 January 2018

Michelle Antolos (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on foraging behaviour and energetics of Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes, Laysan P. immutabilis and Indian Yellow-nosed Thalassarche carteri Albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Animals can maximize fitness by optimizing energy acquisition through the selection of favorable foraging habitats, but trade-offs exist between time spent in preferred feeding habitats, energetic costs of travel, and reproductive constraints. For pelagic seabirds, geographic distribution of suitable breeding islands can restrict access to marine prey resources and influence foraging strategies. Laysan (Phoebastria immutabilis) and black-footed albatrosses (P. nigripes) breeding in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses (Thalassarche carteri) breeding in the Southern Indian Ocean, utilize productive subtropical-subpolar transition zones during their breeding and non-breeding periods, but this marine feature is at a comparatively greater distance for Hawaiian albatrosses during the breeding period due to location of nesting islands. We investigated the foraging behavior and energetics of these three species to evaluate how proximity to preferred marine habitats has influenced their overall foraging strategies. During incubation, all three species traveled to subtropical-subpolar transition zones, however, Hawaiian albatrosses ranged farther to reach this habitat. All species reduced time at sea during brooding, and Hawaiian albatrosses reduced their foraging ranges to distances similar to yellow-nosed albatrosses. As a consequence, Hawaiian albatrosses foraged in the warm, oligotrophic environment of the subtropical gyre during brooding while yellow-nosed albatrosses continued to forage in a subtropical-subpolar transition zone. Landing rates, an indicator of foraging effort, did not differ between reproductive stages and were highly variable within and among species. Hawaiian albatrosses generally spent more time in flight compared to yellow-nosed albatrosses, a strategy that may relate to searching for dispersed and unpredictable prey. Mean absolute field-metabolic rate (FMR) was greatest for black-footed albatrosses, and similar between Laysan and yellow-nosed albatrosses, but mass-specific FMR did not differ between species. Hawaiian albatrosses had lower total body water than yellow-nosed albatrosses (indicating greater lipid reserves), and had FMRs that fell below the allometric relationship for studied albatross species, attributes that likely reflect physiological adaptations for foraging in a low-productivity environment.”

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross and chick, photograph by Peter Ryan

Reference:

Antolos, M., Shaffer, S.A., Weimerskirch, H. Tremblay, Y. & Costa, D.P. 2017. Foraging behavior and energetics of albatrosses in contrasting breeding environments. Frontiers in Marine Science doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00414.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 December 2017

The James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on the Hawaiian island of Oahu has its first breeding pair of globally Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis.

After three years of social attraction with decoys and a call-broadcasting system and more than 700 recorded visits from wild adults, a wild pair has laid an egg and commenced incubation. The pair was banded in the refuge so its provenance is unknown. Three more birds are sitting on empty nest bowls within the predator-proof fenced area where chicks artificially hatched from eggs translocated from the island of Kauai have been had-reared until fledging over the last three breeding seasons (click here).

The first Laysan Albatross egg gets incubated in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, sex of the bird awaits confirmation, photograph by Lindsay Young

The breeding area in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge is protected by a predator-proof fence, photograph by Lindsay Young

According to Pacific Rim Conservation a few more nests are expected to be established this season. This will be the first year translocated chicks could be expected to return as pre-breeders.

The refuge is also being used to hand rear translocated chicks of the globally Near Threatened Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes. The overall aim is to create a new breeding colony for both albatross species which at most of their low-lying breeding sites are at risk from sea level rise predicted to be caused by climate change (click here).

Albatross conservation work within the refuge is carried out by Pacific Rim Conservation, with support from partners Pacific Islands: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Navy, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation and American Bird Conservancy.

With thanks to Lindsay Young, Pacific Rim Conservation for information and photographs.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 28 December 2017

Last month Karen Baird from BirdLife International based in New Zealand organised the fourth in a series of seabird identification courses which began in 2011 for international fisheries scientists involved in managing seabird bycatch issues in their respective countries. As the ‘Seabird Capital of the World’ and a having a high level of expertise in seabirds, New Zealand is an ideal place to hold such a course.

‘Biz’ Bell (Wildlife Management International) and Igor Debski (Department of Conservation) combined with Karen to run a week-long course for three scientists from Indonesia and Taiwan earlier this month. The three visiting scientists had hands-on experience under the expert guidance of Biz who confirms observer seabird identifications and undertakes necropsies of dead birds returned from vessels fishing in New Zealand waters. A wide range of information is gathered which will assist in understanding the factors which contribute to bycatch. In addition, samples are taken for analysis by other scientists who study plastic ingestion by seabirds.

The scientists also discussed their various observer programmes and the type of data that are gathered and exchanged ideas on ways for improvements.

Biz Bell (left) looks on as Prawira Tampubolon measures a Procellaria Petrel.  Julia Hwang and Yu-min Yeh (right) watch and record the bird's statistics

The highlight of the course was a day out to sea from Kaikoura with Albatross Encounter where Julia Hwang and Yu-Min Yeh from Taiwan saw live albatrosses and petrels for the first time in their lives. Julia said that she had been analysing observer data from Taiwanese vessels for 10 years but this was the first time she had ever seen a live albatross.

We were lucky enough to see two species of great albatrosses on the outing, Antipodes Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni and Northern Royal D. sanfordi, as well as the smaller mollymawk Salvin’s Thalassarche salvini and White-capped T. steadi Albatrosses, both highly bycaught by New Zealand fisheries. Another lucky encounter was to see all three of New Zealand’s Procellaria petrels: Westland P. westlandica, Black P. parkinsoni and White-chinned P. aequinoctialis, which can be difficult to tell apart. Julia Hwang, Yu-min Yeh from Taiwan and Prawira Tampubolon from Indonesia thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to see live seabirds at sea.

Julia Hwang, Yu-min Yeh and Prawira Tampubolon at sea off Kaikoura with Igor Debski (right)

Karen Baird, BirdLife International, New Zealand, 27 December 2017