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title: "The ACAP MONTHLY MISSIVE: Is there (or should there be) such a thing as a “Snowy Albatross”?"
---

# The ACAP MONTHLY MISSIVE: Is there (or should there be) such a thing as a “Snowy Albatross”?

*![Wandering Albatross by John Cooper](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/W/Wandering/Wandering_Albatross_by_John_Cooper.jpg)  
A 29-year-old male Wandering Albatross guards its chick near Prinsloomeer on South Africa's Marion Island on 17 April 2005; the bird was banded as a chick on 2 November 1976, photograph by John Cooper*

 The “great albatrosses” in the genus *Diomedea* can be divided into two groups, the two royal albatrosses, endemic to New Zealand and what can be called the “wandering-type group or complex” which is generally considered to be made up of four closely related (and hard to identify at sea) species.  These are the Amsterdam *D. amsterdamensis*, Antipodean *D. antipodensis* (with two subspecies, *antipodensis* and *gibsoni*), the Tristan *D. dabbenena* and the Wandering *D. exulans.* A view exists that the two Antipodean subspecies should be afforded specific status.  *D. a. gibsoni* would then become known as Gibson’s Albatross.  Both these subspecies have also been described as “Antipodean Wandering” and Gibson’s Wandering” in the literature, with the Antipodean *sensu lato* being called the New Zealand Albatross.

 The Wandering Albatross currently has no recognized subspecies.  Historically, *D. e. chionoptera*has been described as a subspecies of the Wandering Albatross (originally as a full species by Salvin in 1986), but is no longer recognized, making the species monotypic.  The taxon, used to describe the larger and generally whiter Wandering Albatrosses of the sub-Antarctic, became known as the Snowy Albatross.

 Nowadays, “Snowy” seems to be mainly used on social media groups, often by seabird watchers who frequent “[pelagic trips](https://www.facebook.com/groups/pelagics.seabirds)” in the southern hemisphere.  It is not used as a primary common name by most handbooks, scientific journals, the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels ([ACAP](https://www.acap.aq/resources/acap-species/304-wandering-albatross/file)), [BirdLife International](https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/wandering-albatross-diomedea-exulans/text), IUCN and [New Zealand Birds Online](https://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/wandering-albatross) (although it is mentioned by some of them as an alternative common name).  However, it is used in some (but not all) recent field guides, by [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_albatross), [eBird](https://ebird.org/species/wanalb1?siteLanguage=en_ZA), in Cornell Lab’s online [Birds of the World series](https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/wanalb1/cur/introduction) and by the [IOC World Bird List](https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/petrels/), thus perpetuating its use among birdwatchers.

 *![Wandering Albatross Drake Passage Kirk Zufelt](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/W/Wandering/Wandering_Albatross_Drake_Passage_Kirk_Zufelt.jpg)  
A Wandering Albatross in the Drake Passage, photograph by Kirk Zufelt*

 To avoid too much confusion, I suggest that those who prefer to call the Wanderer a Snowy when writing in social media outlets and for non-scientific print publications, explain at first usage that they are referring to the Wandering Albatross *Diomedea exulans*.  For scientific publications, handbooks and the like I suggest authors stick to using “Wandering” and avoid the term “Snowy”.

 **Selected Publications:**

 Bourne, W.R.P. 1989.  The evolution, classification and nomenclature of the great albatrosses. *Le Gerfaut* 79: 105-116.

 Burg, T.M. & Croxall, J.P. 2004.  Global population structure and taxonomy of the Wandering Albatross species complex.  [Molecular Ecology 13: 2345-2355](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2004.02232.x).

 Medway, D. 1993.  The identity of the Chocolate Albatross *Diomedea spadicea* Gmelin, 1789 and of the Wandering Albatross *Diomedea exulans* of Linnaeus, 1758.  [Notornis 40: 145-162](https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Notornis_40_2_145.pdf).

 Schodde, R., Tennyson, A.J.D., Groth, J.G., Lai, J.; Scofield, P. & Steinheimer, F.D. 2017.  Settling the name Diomedea exulans Linnaeus, 1758 for the Wandering Albatross by neotypification.  [Zootaxa 4236 (1): 135](https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4236.1.7).

 *John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 02 July 2024, updated 03 July 2024*