---
title: "Feeling a bit lousy: Critically Endangered Waved Albatrosses carry critically co-endangered lice"
---

# Feeling a bit lousy: Critically Endangered Waved Albatrosses carry critically co-endangered lice

Lajos Rózsa (MTA-ELTE-MTM Ecology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary) and Zoltán Vas have published in the journal [*Oryx*](http://www.oryxthejournal.org/)on the conservation of parasitic lice, including *Docophoroides levequei* and *Perineus oblongus* that are only known from the Critically Endangered Waved Albatross *Phoebastria irrorata*.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/W/Waved/Waved_ Albatross_incubating_by_Kate_Huyvaert.jpg)

 Waved Albatross, photograph by Kate Huyvaert

 The paper’s abstract follows

 “The co-extinction of parasitic taxa and their host species is considered a common phenomenon in the current global extinction crisis.  However, information about the conservation status of parasitic taxa is scarce.  We present a global list of co-extinct and critically co-endangered parasitic lice (Phthiraptera), based on published data on their host-specificity and their hosts’ conservation status according to the IUCN Red List.  We list six co-extinct and 40 (possibly 41) critically co-endangered species.  Additionally, we recognize 2–4 species that went extinct as a result of conservation efforts to save their hosts.  Conservationists should consider preserving host-specific lice as part of their efforts to save species.”

 Want to know of more albatross lice?  If so, [click here](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/57-2012-news-archive/1102-lousy-times-for-three-new-zealand-albatrosses).

 **Reference:**

 Rózsa, L. & Vas, Z.  2015.  Co-extinct and critically co-endangered species of parasitic lice, and conservation-induced extinction: should lice be reintroduced to their hosts?  [*Oryx* 49: 107-110](http://phthiraptera.info/sites/phthiraptera.info/files/68821.pdf).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 January 2015*