A translocated hand-reared Short-tailed Albatross is confirmed breeding successfully in Japan's Ogasawara Islands

In May last year a Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus chick was found on Nakodojima Island, five kilometres south of Mukojima Island in Japan's Ogasawara Islands where a translocation project (70 chicks over the four years 2007-2011) was undertaken, but it was not possible to identify the parent birds (click here).

In the current breeding season, a pair made up of a female hand-reared on Mukojima in 2009 and a naturally-reared male bird from Torishima was identified on Nakodojima.  The pair failed to breed this time but it was confirmed that they were the parents of last year's chick by a parentage DNA test in a cooperative study conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Institute of Boninology and the Hokkaido University Museum.

The 2014 Short-tailed Albatross chick on Nakodojima Island, photograph courtesy of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

A young Short-tailed Albatross on Mukojima Island, photograph by the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology

This finding supports the success of the reintroduction of Short-tailed Albatrosses from Torishima to the Ogasawara Islands.

With thanks to Tomohiro Deguchi, Yamashina Institute for Ornithology for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 27 March 2015

The Agreement on the
Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

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