Spectacled Petrel by Lea Finke of ABUN for ACAP, charcoal, chalk and sanguine; after a photograph by Peter Ryan

Note: The illustrated Species Summaries have been written to help inform the genera 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 Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata.

Spectacled Petrel on Inaccessible Island; photograph by Peter Ryan

The Spectacled Petrel is one of five medium-to-large petrels within the genus Procellaria, along with the Black, Grey, Westland and White-chinned.  Among all the petrels and shearwaters in the family Procellariidae, they are the largest that dig and breed in burrows.

The species is essentially all dark brown to black save for conspicuous white markings on the head, giving the bird its name, as well as its local name of ‘Ringeye’.  The bill is yellowish but with a darker tip than its close relative, the White-chinned Petrel.  Spectacled Petrels breed only on the plateau of uninhabited Inaccessible Island (12.65 km²), part of the United Kingdom Overseas Territory of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic.  It may have bred on Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean in the past, but like several other species, was extirpated there following the introduction of several mammals to the island.  The petrel’s current at-sea distribution is largely confined to the South Atlantic with birds regularly reaching the continental waters of Brazil and southern Africa, although the few records in the southern Indian Ocean extend to Australia.

The most recent survey of numbers on Inaccessible Island, made in 2018, resulted in an estimate of 30 000 breeding pairs, reflecting a steady increase since at least the 1930s following the disappearance of introduced pigs.  The species breeds in burrows in wet heath, bogfern heath and locally in Phylica woodland from 250 to 500 m above sea level, laying a single white egg and rearing the single chick through the austral summer. Diet is primarily squid, as well as crustaceans and fish, taken from the sea surface or by shallow dives.

Past threats included feral pigs on Inaccessible, extirpated in the early 20th century; the island is now free of introduced mammals.  Currently, birds are killed by longline fisheries, notably of the coast of Brazil, but not at a rate to halt the ongoing population increase.  Despite this, the Spectacled Petrel’s single breeding site means it retains a conservation category of Vulnerable.  Introduction of rodents (present on the inhabited island of Tristan da Cunha 37 km away) remains a potential threat that needs to be continuously guarded against from landings, fishing vessels and shipwrecks.  Adoption of ‘best practice’ mitigation measures by longline fisheries in both national and international waters, including deployment of bird-scaring lines, line weighting and night setting, will reduce at-sea mortalities.

Inaccessible Island and its territorial waters are a nature reserve declared by the Tristan da Cunha Government in 1997, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance (from 2008), and with Gough Island a natural World Heritage Site since 2004.  Both islands have a combined management plan which controls landings by researchers and tourists.  In 2021 a Marine Protected Area extending to the edge of the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone is due to be formally declared around Inaccessible and the other islands of the Tristan-Gough group.

Sources:

ACAP 2012.  Spectacled Petrel Procellaria conspicillata.

BirdLife International 2021.  Species factsheet: Procellaria conspicillata.

Ryan, P.G., Dilley, B.J. & Ronconi, R.A. 2019.  Population trends of Spectacled Petrels Procellaria conspicillata and other seabirds at Inaccessible Island.  Marine Ornithology 47: 257-265.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 March 2022

“Climate Change 2” Black-footed Albatrosses, mixed-media/digital art; after a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

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.  This follows the inaugural theme “Eradicating Island Pests” in 2020 and “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries” last year  (click here).  The featured species chosen for 2022 are two of the three species of albatrosses that breed in the North Pacific: the Black-footed Phoebastria nigripes and the Laysan P. immutabilis.  Both these Near Threatened albatrosses have most of their breeding populations on the low-lying atolls of the USA’s North-western Hawaiian Islands.  There they are at risk from sea level rise and increases in the number and severity of storms that result in flooding, both considered a consequence of climate change.

ACAP is once more working with ABUN (Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature) over the first three months of the year on its 39th Project (“World Albatross Day 2022 - Climate Change”) to produce artworks that will help increase awareness of the conservation plight facing the world’s albatrosses (click here).  The response to date, as for the previous two collaborations with ABUN, has been most pleasing, with many members producing to date a total of 66 artworks that depict the two species.  ACAP Latest News takes pleasure in featuring one of these artists with a selection of her evocative works for WAD2022.

"Dance of the Laysan”, a Laysan Albatross couple go through all their “dance moves”, after a photograph by Eric Vanderwerf

Grisselle Chock works on her artwork of a Laysan Albatross (see the completed work below)

Grisselle Chock is an illustrator, painter and graphic artist, who recently joined Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature to lend her talents to the urgency of saving endangered species around the world.  Born in Puerto Rico, the warmth and bright colours of the tropics have followed her to Ohio, USA, where she now resides, and form an integral part of her  artistic style.    Grisselle’s mediums are oils, acrylics, watercolours and digital media. and her inspirations are nature, social and environmental causes.   She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Puerto Rico and an Associate Degree in Illustration Magna Cum Laude.

A colour-banded Laysan Albatross in flight, Arteza gouache on Strathmore paper by Grisselle Chock, is the start for her poster “Climate Change 1” (below); after a photograph by Hob Osterlund

Grisselle describes her A2 poster below as first consisting of a gouache illustration painted from Hob Osterlund’s photograph (above).  She writes: “I then sat down and meditated for half an hour, thinking about the theme for WAD2022 and its purpose and I could see this colourful and interesting picture forming in my mind.  It shows a Laysan Albatross half-faded, as it tries to fly over the tipping point, my own version of the global warming stripes graphic that portrays long-term temperature trends, with the words: “CLIMATE CHANGE” also fading behind it.  I then added all the elements together digitally, creating the stripes and the type and opacity effect and that’s how this poster was born.” She has also produced a second version, this time depicting the Black-footed Albatross (see the feature photograph above).

“Climate Change 1” Laysan Albatross, mixed-media/digital art; after a photograph by Hob Osterlund

“Albatross at Sunset”, a Black-footed Albatross, mixed-media/digital art; after a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

With grateful thanks to Grisselle Chock and Kitty Harvill, Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature, and to the photographers, Laurie Smaglick Johnson, Hob Osterlund and Eric Vanderwerf.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 22 March 2022

 
Grey Petrel at sea, watercolour by ABUN artist Walt Anderson for ACAP; after a photograph by Hadoram Shirihai

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 Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea.

 
A Grey Petrel alongside its chick in their burrow on Marion Island, photograph by Ben Dilley

The Grey Petrel is one of five medium-to-large petrels within the genus Procellaria, along with the Black, Spectacled, Westland and White-chinned.  Among all the petrels and shearwaters in the family Procellariidae, they are the largest that dig and breed in burrows.  An ash-grey petrel with a white belly and darker underwings and tail, noticeably paler than the dark brown or black of the other species in the genus.  The bill is pale yellow with a black upper line.

The Grey Petrel has a circumpolar distribution in the Southern Ocean.  It breeds on sub-Antarctic and sub-tropical islands belonging to Australia, France, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic (Gough and Tristan da Cunha), southern Indian (Amsterdam, Crozets, Kerguelen and Prince Edwards) and southern Pacific (Antipodes, Campbell, Macquarie).  Grey Petrels from Antipodes migrate to South American Pacific waters after breeding.

Population numbers, as for many burrowing petrels, are not well known; a rough global estimate is of 80 000 breeding pairs.  The largest population of an estimated 50 000 pairs (in 2001) is found on New Zealand’s Antipodes Island.  Amsterdam (which likely once had a large population), Campbell, Macquarie and Tristan da Cunha support less than 100 breeding pars each.  The other islands have estimated populations in the low thousands of pairs.  Population trends, although not known overall, vary between islands; the species is thought to be decreasing in numbers at Gough and Kerguelen, and recovering from a low base on Campbell and Macquarie.  The species breeds annually in loose colonies, laying a single egg and rearing the chick in burrows during the austral winter.  Diet of the Grey Petrel is primarily squid along with fish caught by surface seizing or shallow diving, augmented by scavenging behind fishing vessels.

Although the Grey Petrel has been categorized as only globally Near Threatened, it faces ongoing threats both at sea and on land.  It is at risk (with a bias to females) of being caught by commercial longline fishing vessels, notably in Australian and New Zealand waters and around the French Kerguelen Islands.  On Gough Island and on Marion Island (Prince Edwards) introduced House Mice prey upon downy chicks in winter when other food resources are scarce, causing low breeding success.  On the plus side all introduced mammals have been removed from Antipodes, Campbell and Macquarie.  Eradication attempts to rid Gough and Marion of House Mice are currently due in 2021 and 2013, respectively.

The Grey Petrel is listed both within the Albatross and Petrel Agreement (ACAP) and the Convention on Migratory Species on Appendix II.  All breeding islands are national nature reserves with management plans or equivalents, restricting landings by permit only.  All but South Africa’s Prince Edward Islands are World Heritage Natural Sites and several are also Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance.  Most are surrounded by Marine Protected Areas of varying sizes.

Sources:

ACAP 2012.  Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea.

Bell, E.A. 2018.  Grey petrel.  In: Miskelly, C.M. (Ed.)  New Zealand Birds Online.

BirdLife International 2021.  Species factsheet: Procellaria cinerea.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 March 2022

Black Petrel; photograph courtesy of the Black Petrel Action Group

Elizabeth ‘Biz’ Bell, Managing Director of Wildlife Management International (WMIL) has reported on the latest breeding season of the globally Vulnerable and ACAP-listed Black Petrels Procellaria parkinsoni that breed on Hirakimata/Mount Hobson on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island, via the Facebook page of the Black Petrel Action Group.

'Biz' Bell; photograph by Ed Marshall

She writes “it’s been a good season so far, with 301 breeding pairs recorded within the 482 study burrows (slightly down from last year’s 319).  At the February check, 233 were still on eggs, 53 had chicks and 15 breeding attempts had already failed (due to infertile eggs, rat predation and other reasons).  There were also 98 burrows in use by non-breeding birds, some that were caught for the first time and now sport new individually numbered bands.  A number of young birds (not yet breeders) were caught for the first time back at the colony as well as some individuals that had not been seen for 12 or even 19 years!  The WMIL team will be back in the study colony around the end of April/early May to band surviving chicks and confirm just how well the breeding season has gone.”

A Black Petrel portrait by ABUN artist Virginia Nicol for ACAP in graphite pencil; after her own photograph

John Cooper, ACAP information Officer, 18 March 2022