A Grey-headed Albatross guards its chick on Marion Island; photograph by Michelle Risi

The Mouse-Free Marion Project is working towards eradicating the island’s seabird-killing House Mice in 2024.  To increase awareness of the dangers the birds face, and the risks to Marion’s whole ecosystem from the mice, as well as to raise the visibility of the endeavour, the project has illustrated many of its news posts with grisly pictures of mice eating the chicks of Grey-headed and Wandering Albatrosses and other species alive.  However, it is also important to show the beauty of the island and its birds, so the passion the project team and its supporters feel for the project can be understood.  To this end, a poster series has been produced that depicts the four albatross and two giant petrel species that breed on Marion Island.

Two Light-mantled Albatrosses interact on Marion Island; photograph by John Dickens

MFM News wrote to researchers who have spent a year or more on Marion Island, asking them to submit a portfolio of their best photos, from which 34 were selected.  The posters have been designed by Michelle Risi, who has spent over four years living on Marion and Gough Islands, conducting research on their breeding seabirds.

Wandering Albatrosses display on Marion Island, with neighbouring (and mouse-free) Prince Edward Island on the horizon; photograph by Michelle Risi   

The 34 posters are being released in batches in high resolution suitable for printing (click here for the first batch).  They are also being made available in a lower resolution in a photo album on the Mouse-Free Marion Facebook Page.  It is intended to produce a second series of posters that will feature several of the burrowing petrels that have been severely impacted by mice on Marion.

A Southern Giant Petrel pair rests in the snow on Marion Island; photograph by Janine Schoombie

With grateful thanks to the six overwintering Marion Island researchers who willingly contributed their evocative photographs: John Dickens (M72, 2015/16), Sean Evans (M76, 2019/20), Alexis Osborne (M71, 2014/15), Michelle Risi (M74, 2017/18), Janine Schoombie (M72, 2015/16) and Stefan Schoombie (M70, 2013/14; M72, 2015/16; M76, 2019/20).  Thanks especially to Michelle for her much valued (and pro bono) contributions towards the project’s success.

This news post originally appeared on the Mouse-Free Marion Project website.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 07 April 2022

 
N333 broods its chick; photograph by Daniel Rapp

ACAP Latest News has regularly reported over the last decade or so on Wisdom, the world’s oldest-known Laysan Albatross Phoebastria immutabilis, who at the age of at least 70 continues to visit and breed on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific.  Most recently, we heard not of Wisdom (who is taking a well-earned year off from breeding) but of one of her chicks now breeding on the island (click here).

“Hatched in December of 2010, [Wisdom's] chick was banded with identification number N333 before it took flight in June of 2011.  More than a decade later in March of 2022, N333 along with his mate, is now raising a chick of their own!”

Watch this short video of Wisdom's "grandchick" being fed its parents N333 (Wisdom’s 2010/11 chick) and mate DH00, produced by USFWS volunteer Daniel Rapp.  Enjoy!

And watch an earlier video of Wisdom’s grandchick, also by Daniel Rapp.

News from Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 06 April 2022

Black Petrel, gouache by ABUN artist Griselle Chock for ACAP; photograph by Virginia Nicol

Note:  The illustrated Species Summaries have been written to help inform the general public, including school learners, of the biology and conservation needs of the 31 ACAP-listed species.  They serve to complement the more detailed and referenced ACAP Species Assessments.  To date, summaries for the 22 species of albatrosses have been produced in in all three ACAP official languages, English, French and Spanish.

Texts have also been prepared for the nine ACAP-listed petrels and shearwaters in English, but as yet have not been translated into French and Spanish.  As an interim service, the illustrated English texts are being posted to ACAP Latest News, continuing here with the Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni.

A fledgling Black Petrel, Mount Hobson/Hirakimata, Great Barrier Island, May 2019; photograph by ‘Biz Bell’, Wildlife Management International

The Black Petrel is one of five medium-to-large petrels within the genus Procellaria, along with the Grey, Spectacled, Westland and White-chinned; it is the smallest of the five.  Among all the petrels and shearwaters in the family Procellariidae, they are the largest that dig and breed in burrows.  The species is overall dark brown to black, with black legs and feet.  The bill is yellowish to white with a black tip.  It is similar in appearance to the larger Westland Petrel.

The Black Petrel is a New Zealand endemic that currently breeds on only two islands, Little Barrier (Hauturu; 28 km², 722 m) and around the summit of 627-m Mount Hobson (Hirakimata) on Great Barrier (Aotea; 285 km²) in the outer Hauraki Gulf of North Island.  In the past it bred in the mountains of both the North and South Islands – where it did not survive introduced mammalian predators.  At sea its range extends to the east coast of Australia (when breeding) and to the Pacific coast of South America as nonbreeders, as shown by tracking studies.  Estimates suggest there are less than 3000 breeding pairs with an overall population of around 11 000 birds, including juveniles.  Around 600 pairs breed on permanently uninhabited Little Barrier with 2000-2500 pairs on and around Great Barrier’s Mount Hobson where the petrel has been monitored from the 1995/96 breeding season.  The population is assumed to be stable on both islands, following recovery from cats on Little Barrier.  Black Petrels breed colonially, laying their single eggs in burrows dug within forested areas in the austral summer.  Diet includes fish caught by day and more rarely bioluminescent squid caught at night, both by mostly shallow dives to less than five metres.

The species is at risk to fishing, being caught on longlines when scavenging behind vessels in both New Zealand and South American waters.  This, a calculated low adult survival rate, low juvenile recruitment and its restriction to only two breeding sites have given it both a global and a national threat category of Endangered.  It is listed both within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement (ACAP) and the Convention on Migratory Species on Appendix II.

Little Barrier Island is a Nature Reserve (New Zealand’s first, established in 1896) with the public requiring a permit to visit during the day only in limited numbers.  It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International.  Great Barrier Island has a small resident community of under one thousand, high numbers of visitors, and large forested areas classified as a Scenic Reserve.  Little Barrier has no introduced predators following the removal of feral cats and Pacific Rats, whereas Great Barrier has Ship and Pacific Rats, feral cats and feral pigs; feral goats were eradicated in 2006.  Trapping to control rats and cats takes place within the Mount Hobson study site where visitors are restricted to walking tracks and boardwalks to avoid disturbing burrows by trampling.  Translocation of chicks from Great to Little Barrier took place in the past to bolster the population on the smaller island.

Sources:

ACAP 2012.  Black Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni.

Bell, E.A. 2013.  Black petrel.  In: Miskelly, C.M. (Ed.)  New Zealand Birds Online.

Bell, E.A. 2021. Featuring ACAP-listed species and their photographers: the Black Petrel by Elizabeth Bell.  ACAP Latest News, 01 October 2021.

BirdLife International 2021.  Species factsheet: Procellaria parkinsoni.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 05 April 2022

Black-footed Albatrosses, watercolour and gouache by Flávia Barreto; after a photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

The Albatross and Petrel Agreement has chosen the theme “Climate Change” to mark the third World Albatross Day, to be celebrated on 19 June 2022 (WAD2022).  The featured species for 2022 are the North Pacific Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and the Laysan P. immutabilis Albatrosses, considered to be at risk to sea level rise and increases in the number and severity of storms that result in flooding caused by climate change.

For the first three months of the year ACAP has been collaborating with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) on its 39th Project to produce artworks that will help increase awareness of the conservation plight facing the world’s albatrosses and support WAD2022 (click here).  With the collaboration now completed, ACAP Latest News takes pleasure in featuring the second of its contributing ABUN artists, following on from Grisselle Chock last month.

Laysan Albatrosses, watercolour by Flávia Barreto; after a photograph by Hob Osterlund

Flávia Barreto lives in Nova Friburgo, a town in the State of Rio de Janeiro, in south-eastern Brazil.  She describes herself as an amateur artist and a retired civil servant with a law degree.  Although she has had no formal education in the visual arts, she grew up in a family of artists who taught her drawing and painting techniques.  After retirement she decided there was still time to learn more and dedicate her life to art.  Being a lover of nature and animals, her art and interests gradually evolved towards drawing and painting threatened species.

Laysan Albatross, watercolour by Flávia Barreto; after a photograph by Kirk Zufelt

She writes to ALN: “My current favourite media are watercolour, gouache and acrylic.  I enjoy not only painting animals, but also learning about their biology, habits, behaviour and habitats.  In my work, I try to capture their essence and beauty.  I am particularly fond of birds, big cats, and marine life, but all living forms interest me.

Black-footed Albatross, watercolour by Flávia Barreto; after a photograph by Koa Matsuoka

Flávia continues: “I am deeply concerned about climate change, the danger of extinction of so many species, and the increasing destruction of the natural environment in my country and around the world.  Joining ABUN and being able to participate in the projects is a joy and a privilege.  We have the opportunity to learn more about endangered species, be inspired by the amazing works of the photographers and other artists, and at the same time, contribute with our art to support conservation projects.  There is a lot to do, and the time is now, before it is too late.”

Laysan Albatross “Sunday Boy” by Flávia Barreto; after a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

Flávia ends by saying “It would be an honour to have one of my paintings used by ACAP for World Albatross Day.  I want to thank you all for this amazing opportunity.”  And ACAP thanks Flávia for the use of her beautiful art to support the conservation of the world’s 22 species of albatrosses.

With grateful thanks to Kitty Harvill and Marion Schön of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature and to photographers Laurie Smaglick Johnson, Koa Matsuoka, Hob Osterlund, Eric Vanderwerf and Kirk Zufelt.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 04 April 2022