Balearic Shearwater at sea

Patrick Lewin (Department of Biology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom) and colleagues have published open access in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on shifts in migratory patterns by ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwaters Puffinus mauretanicus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“How individual animals respond to climate change is key to whether populations will persist or go extinct.  Yet, few studies investigate how changes in individual behavior underpin these population-level phenomena. Shifts in the distributions of migratory animals can occur through adaptation in migratory behaviors, but there is little understanding of how selection and plasticity contribute to population range shift.  Here, we use long-term geolocator tracking of Balearic shearwaters (Puffinus mauretanicus) to investigate how year-to-year changes in individual birds’ migrations underpin a range shift in the post-breeding migration.  We demonstrate a northward shift in the post-breeding range and show that this is brought about by individual plasticity in migratory destination, with individuals migrating further north in response to changes in sea-surface temperature.  Furthermore, we find that when individuals migrate further, they return faster, perhaps minimizing delays in return to the breeding area.   Birds apparently judge the increased distance that they will need to migrate via memory of the migration route, suggesting that spatial cognitive mechanisms may contribute to this plasticity and the resulting range shift.  Our study exemplifies the role that individual behavior plays in populations’ responses to environmental change and highlights some of the behavioral mechanisms that might be key to understanding and predicting species persistence in response to climate change.”

Reference:

Lewin, P.J., Wynn, J., Arcos, J. M., Austin, R.E., Blagrove, J., Bond, S., Carrasco, G., Delord K., Fisher-Reeves, L., Garcia, D., Gillies, N., Guilford, T., Hawkins, I., Jaggers, P., Kirk, C., Louzao, M., Maurice, L., Mcminn, M., Micol, T., Morford, J., Morgan, G., Moss, J., Miquel Riera, E., Rodriguez, A., Siddiqi-Davies, K., Weimerskirch, H., Wynn, R.B. & Padget, O. 2024.  Climate change drives migratory range shift via individual plasticity in shearwaters.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(6), e2312438121.

Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K, photograph by David Harper

On 10 May 2025 off the shelf break from Port MacDonnell, South Australia, David Harper photographed an Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis with leg band red 51K, as reported on the Seabirds and Pelagics Australia Facebook page.

Taking flight. Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K, photograph by David Harper

New Zealand albatross researcher Kath Walker ONZM commented on the same page.

"It’s a young adult female Gibson’s wandering albatross Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni, which Graeme [Elliott] and I banded on 7 January 2024 when she nested for the first time in our study area on Adams Island in the Auckland Island group.  She would have been at least 10 years old at the time, and probably more like 12 or 15 years old as her partner was a 24-year-old, recently widowed male, and they normally choose birds roughly their own age.”

Gibson’s Antipodean Albatross red 51K breeding on Adams Island, photograph by Kath Walker

“I’ve attached a photo of her I took when we banded her – she’d just made all the finishing touches to her nest which is why her bill is so dirty, and her breast too – 2024 was a wet season and nests were muddy.  The male does the basics in getting a nest ready but when the females arrive all ready to lay, they frantically do all the finishing touches to make ‘nice”!  The red dot above her bill is temporary stock marker we put on birds once they’ve laid to remind us we’ve read her band and doesn’t need to be approached closely again.

Their nesting attempt in 2024 failed when their big feathered chick died (it was a very poor breeding season – only 46% in the SA [study area] were successful).

Having such a late failure left the pair in too poor a condition to try again this year, so when you saw Red-51K, she was on a breeding sabbatical to regain condition.  The shelf break off south Australia is a favourite – presumably rich- place for Gibson’s albatross to forage.

Read about two other colour-banded Gibson's Antipodean Albatrosses photographed at sea here and here.

Southern Buller’s Albatross white A11, photographs by Ian Melbourne

On 17 May 2025, as posted on the same Facebook page, Ian Melbourne photographed a Buller's Albatross Thalassarche bulleri with a back-mounted tracker, along with leg bands white A11 left  and metal right off Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania.  According to a comment the bird was a Southern Buller’s Albatross of the nominate subspecies from the Snares Islands.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 May 2025

Attendees gather for a group photograph on the first day of MoP8

The Eighth Session of ACAP's Meeting of the Parties (MoP8) commenced yesterday in Dunedin, New Zealand, with all 13 Parties to the Agreement present.  It will run until this Friday the 23rd.  Following a traditional Māori welcome (Mihi Whakatau), the first order of the day was an opening speech by New Zealand, followed by the appointment of Danica Stent as MoP8 Chair and Dr Mike Double, Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee, as MoP8 Vice-Chair.

Danica Stent, Chair, MoP8

Danica Stent leads the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s International Policy Team.  She has 15 years of experience working within international environmental governance frameworks.  Her experience includes representing New Zealand and pursuing conservation outcomes in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, the Antarctic Treaty System, and UN Ocean processes.  Before working on international environmental issues, Danica worked in domestic marine protection processes in New Zealand.  Mike Double leads the Australian Marine Mammal Centre, based at the Australian Antarctic Division i Hobart, Tasmania.

Mike Double, Vice-Chair MoP8

The day’s proceedings included a report (MoP8 Doc 08) from the ACAP Secretariat.  To close the first day of the Eighth Session, New Zealand hosted a welcome reception for all the MoP8 attendees in the Dunedin Leisure Lodge, the meeting venue.  The event allowed attendees to network and hear a presentation from Stephanie Rowe, the Department of Conservation's Deputy Director-General Biodiversity, Heritage and Visitors on New Zealand’s seabird conservation work.

Stephanie Rowe gives her talk at the evening reception, photograph by Johan de Goede

Access the MoP8 agenda, schedule and meeting documents and information papers from here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. 20 May 2025

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross in flight by Maureen Bennetts of Artists & Biologists Unit for Nature for World Albatross Day, 19 June 2025, after a photograph by Holly Parsons

For the sixth year running, ACAP is collaborating with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN).  For ABUN Project #49 the collective’s artists have been requested to produce artworks featuring the Endangered Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, endemic to France’s Amsterdam Island, and the Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri.  The artworks will be in support of ACAP’s theme “Effects of Disease” for this year’s World Albatross Day on 19 June (WAD2025),  The project commenced on 01 April and will run until 31 May.

At the time of writing, 25 artworks have been submitted, by 13 artists to Project #49.  Following the trend of previous collaborations with ABUN, more paintings are expected to arrive by the end of the project.  This ACAP Monthly Missive features two of these artworks and Maureen Bennetts, the artist who produced them, along with the two photographers, Karine Delord and Holly Parsons, who took the pictures that inspired Maureen to get out her brushes.

Maureen Bennetts at the Unconformity Art Trail 2023 with her 12-canvas conservation piece illustrating Tasmanian flora and fauna

Maureen Bennetts writes to ACAP Latest News “I live in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.  Working mostly with acrylics, my focus is on wildlife and the natural world.  I came across ABUN some five years ago and was immediately drawn to the concept of artists and biologists working together for the betterment of conservation.  It was a good fit for me, a self-taught amateur artist, wanting to have a voice and help in whatever small way possible.  My journey in life has been intertwined with the natural world and the obvious progression in my own wildlife and nature art led me to ABUN.  I am honoured to be a part of this group.”  Maureen Bennetts has been a supporter of ACAP with her artworks since the inaugural World Albatross Day in 2020.

An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross in flight, photograph by Holly Parsons

Holly Parsons manages the Facebook group Albatross Lovers, described as “a group dedicated to all species of the iconic albatross seabird, as well as the related conservation efforts.  We encourage the sharing of albatross depicted in both art and science to celebrate their beauty and learn about their plight.”  The private group is an important source of information for ACAP Latest News.  In January this year Holly participated in the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage on the MSC Musica when prints she donated of two of her own artworks were auctioned aboard in support of the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.

Holly Parsons, camera at the ready, aboard the MSC Musica in the Southern Ocean

On hearing that one of her photographs taken on the voyage that had been made available to ABUN Project #49, Holly wrote to ALN  “It's awesome!! This is the first time someone has done a painting from one of my photos, so I am honoured!”

An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross guards its chick on Amsterdam Island, by Maureen Bennetts

Karine Delord is a marine ornithologist who conducts research on penguins and procellariiform seabirds on the French sub-Antarctic islands in the southern Indian Ocean.  She a member of the Marine Predators Team at the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé.

 
French marine ornithologist, Karine Delord among Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses at the Falaises d'Entrecasteaux on Amsterdam Island

Karine has written (in translation) on the CEBC website “My activities are related to research programs on the ecology of birds and marine mammals in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands where I regularly carry out field missions of two to three months.  My activities are organized in four axes: the piloting of data collection campaigns; the design of devices and the collection of demographic, telemetric and population data; the analysis and the valorization of the results within the framework of fundamental research for the conservation of vulnerable species and the management of observatory databases.”

An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross guards its chick in the Falaises d'Entrecasteaux colony on Amsterdam Island, photograph by Karine Delord

Karine has supported ACAP for several years by supplying photographs and by advising on texts and design and by carefully editing French wording for the ongoing ACAP Species Infographic series.

The Agreement is grateful for the support of Maureen Bennetts, Karine Delord and Holly Parsons, and looks forward to continuing to work with them in future years.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. 19 May 2025