Displaying Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans on Marion Island; photograph by Otto Whitehead

Opportunities have arisen to become a part of the Mouse-Free Marion Project team. The Mouse-Free Marion Project is working towards a planned eradication of the island’s invasive mice population, an operation which is anticipated to take place over the austral winter in 2025. As described on their website, the project is currently seeking applications for the following positions:

MFM Assistant Project Manager 

The MFM Assistant Project Manager will support the MFM Project Manager, MFM Project Team and Management Committee in developing and delivering a range of activities associated with the planning work for the MFM Project. The ideal candidate will have strong project management skills and experience, especially in the ecological and nature conservation fields, and a sound understanding of South African environmental legislation and regulatory processes associated with environmental projects. For more information on this opportunity, please download the document here.

The MFM Administration and Finance Officer will support the MFM Project Team and work closely with the Finance Team at BirdLife South Africa across a range of administrative and bookkeeping tasks. This new role is intended to provide highly flexible and efficient administrative support across all areas of the MFM Project. The ideal candidate will have strong administrative, bookkeeping and customer relations skills and experience, ideally with knowledge of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database software, such as Salesforce, as well as experience in using bookkeeping software, preferably Pastel/Sage. For more information on this opportunity, please download the document here.

The MFM Prospect Researcher will support the MFM Project Team and work closely with the MFM Project’s Chief Philanthropy Officer to build the fundraising pipeline through prospect research and associated activities. The ideal candidate will have strong prospect research, customer relations, writing and organisational experience. For more information on this opportunity, please download the document here.

More information on the Mouse-Free Marion Project can be found at their website, here. Further enquiries about the roles should be directed to the contact person listed in the relevant document for the specific position. 

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a partnership between the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and BirdLife South Africa.

30 January 2023

A juvenile Wandering Albatross at sea, photograph from Richard Webber

Henri Weimerskirch (Centre d’Études Biologiques de Chizé, La Rochelle Université, France) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. on the changing interest in fishing vessels of great albatrosses (in the genus Diomedea) over their lifetime.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Animals have to develop novel behaviours to adapt to anthropogenic activities or environmental changes. Fishing vessels constitute a recent feature that attracts albatrosses in large numbers. While they provide a valuable food source through offal and bait, they cause mortalities through bycatch, such that selection on vessel attraction will depend on the cost–benefit balance. We examine whether attraction to fishing and other vessels changes through the lifetime of great albatrosses, and show that attraction differed between age classes, sexes and personality. Juveniles encountered fewer vessels than adults, but also showed a lower attraction to vessels when encountered. Attraction rates, especially for fishing vessels, increased through immaturity to peak during adulthood, decreasing with old age. Shy females had lower attraction to vessels and shy males remained at vessels longer, suggesting that bolder individuals may outcompete shyer ones, with positive consequences for mass gain. These results suggest that attraction to vessels is a learned process, leading to an increase with age, and is not the result of preferential attraction to new objects by juveniles. Overall, our findings have important conservation implications as a result of potential strong differential selection on the risk of bycatch for age classes, personality types, populations and species.”

The rate of attraction to fishing vessels and other vessels of Wandering Albatrosses across different age brackets

Weimerskirch, H., Corbeau, A., Pajot, A., Patrick, S.C. & Collet, J. 2023. Albatrosses develop attraction to fishing vessels during immaturity but avoid them at old age. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 290http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2252

27 January 2023

Geraldine with her 2023 chick, photograph by Caren Loebel-Fried

George and Geraldine, the sole pair of Vulnerable Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus breeding on Midway Atoll, have hatched their latest egg that was laid back in October last year.  The chick was first sighted on 27 December being brooding by George, the male bird, but it may have hatched one or two days previously.  . Watch a one-minute video by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer Catie Mahon of George and Geraldine on 10 January shortly after a nest change, with the chick being fed by the returning female, after which the male departed.  The chick is their fourth since their first known meeting in 2016; no chick was produced last year as their egg did not hatch in the 2021/22 breeding season.

Geraldine with the 2023 hatchling, photograph by Jon Plissner, USFWS

“What's particularly exciting as well is the steady appearance of the couple's [first 2018/19, banded red AA08] chick near the nest that was present for its sibling’s hatching!  A wildlife camera funded by the Friends of Midway Atoll is focused on the nest 24/7 that gives biologists the chance to observe the chick and its parental care and feeding while also being able to document the comings and goings of the chick’s 4-year-old sibling.  It is not unusual for albatross juveniles to return to their natal island before they are sexually mature.  This week the juvenile was captured trying out his dance moves with a neighbouring Black-footed Albatross!”

The juvenile Short-tailed Albatross up on its toes displaying to a much smaller Black-footed Albatross P. nigripes on Midway, 27 December 2022, photograph by Jon Plissner, USFWS

If the juvenile is able to find a conspecific to engage in mutual display on Midway (click here), then breeding might follow, resulting in two pairs of Short-tailed Albatrosses on the atoll.  And the most recent news of only two days ago is of another of George and Geraldine's fledglings (their second, the  2019/20 chick) has been seen back on Midway, also near its parents.  Along with a subadult banded on Torishima that has been seen elsewhere on the atoll, there are five Short-tailed Albatrosses present on Midway this season (not countiing the current chick). Start of a new colony?  Let's hope so!

Access earlier posts to ACAP Latest News on the fortunes of George and Geraldine here.

Meanwhile, to the west on Kure Attoll the field team has observed several Short-tailed Albatrosses this season but no nests according to the Kure Atoll Conservancy Facebook page. What happened to the female-female pair that laid infertile eggs on Kure some years back?

Information courtesy of the Friends of Midway Atoll National  Wildlife Refuge.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 26 January 2023

A White-chinned Petrel is fitted with a tracking sensor; photograph by Richard Phillips

Insights from the second year of a British Antarctic Survey’s study analysing at-sea distributions of White-chinned Petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis from South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur)* has revealed significant differences in feeding patterns across breeding sites.

The multi-year study, Spatial Segregation of Seabirds at South Georgia, led by Dr Victoria Warwick-Evans, aims to identify the at-sea distribution and fisheries overlap of birds from different colonies to pinpoint high-risk areas and address bycatch impacts on the species.

Satellite transmitters were fitted to adult petrels incubating eggs in December 2022 at two locations, King Edward Point and Bird Island. The birds’ movement will be tracked until the late chick-rearing phase (when the batteries in the device run out). Early tracking data has revealed birds from King Edward Point and Bird Island travel to similar foraging areas on the Patagonian Shelf and near the Antarctic Peninsula, however, so far only birds from King Edward Point have fed in waters to the north or east of South Georgia.

A map showing the routes of White-chinned Petrels tracked from Bird Island (red) and King Edward Point (green)

“The main aims of the project are to map the at-sea distributions and habitat preferences of birds breeding at different sites across South Georgia, and to identify the fishing fleets that likely pose the highest risk. This increased knowledge will focus conservation and management efforts and help safeguard the future of these globally important seabird populations.” Project leader, Dr Victoria Warwick-Evans

White-chinned Petrels are one of the most frequently killed seabirds in South American fisheries and the majority of those birds comes from breeding populations in South Georgia.

Four species are the focus of the ongoing study: Wandering Albatrosses, Northern Giant Petrels, Southern Giant Petrels and White-chinned Petrels. More information about the project, including an interactive map showing the tracks in near real-time, can be found at the British Antarctic Survey website.

25 January 2023

*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.