---
title: "Hands-on management: this season Laysan Albatross eggs from Kauai get foster parents on Oahu"
---

# Hands-on management: this season Laysan Albatross eggs from Kauai get foster parents on Oahu

It’s all on the go with the hands-on management of [globally Near Threatened](https://www.fws.gov/refuge/james_campbell/)Laysan Albatrosses *Phoebastria immutabilis* on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu. Last month, as has been happening for the last 12 years, eggs were collected from the US Navy’s [Pacific Missile Range Facility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Missile_Range_Facility) on Kauai. The breeding birds are a risk to flight operations at the facility, but rather than just destroying their eggs those deemed fertile by candling ([click here](https://www.facebook.com/prconservation/videos/1814161801989248/?q=pacific%20rim%20conservation)) are fostered out to Laysans elsewhere on the island that have infertile eggs (often because both members of a pair are females). For this breeding season the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands delivered fertile eggs to 22 Laysan Albatross nests on three private properties on Kauai.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/Egg-transfer-Laysan-Hob-Osterlund.jpg) 

 A Laysan Albatross receives a fertile egg on the island of Kauai, photograph by Hob Osterlund

 View a [video clip](https://www.facebook.com/hob.osterlund/videos/10155894219984144/) of a bird receiving its new egg on Kauai.

 But this left a number of collected eggs with no suitable nests for fostering on the island. In the last three years these surplus eggs have taken a short flight by aeroplane to Oahu where the NGO Pacific Rim Conservation has artificially incubated them and then after hatching hand-reared the chicks in the [James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge](https://www.fws.gov/refuge/james_campbell/), in an endeavour to create a new colony ([click here](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/2921-laysan-albatrosses-commence-breeding-in-hawaii-s-james-campbell-national-wildlife-refuge))

 This season a different tack has been taken as [Pacific Rim Conservation](https://www.pacificrimconservation.org/) reports by [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/prconservation/). “Every year there are more eggs than foster nests on Kauai, and this year instead of hand-raising these chicks at James Campbell, they were given to foster parents at [Kaena Point [Natural Area Reserve]](https://www.acap.aq/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1333-acap-breeding-sites-no-14-kaena-point-oahu-hawaii-protects-its-laysan-albatrosses-and-wedge-tailed-shearwaters-behind-a-predator-proof-fence?highlight=WyJrYWVuYSJd&lang=en)to bolster that population.” Twenty-one eggs have been fostered, meaning that over 40 eggs have been saved from destruction.

 Read more [here](http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/12/27/breaking-news/navy-conservationists-move-kauai-laysan-albatross-eggs-to-keana-point/).

 Meanwhile the Laysan Albatrosses in the Kaena Point Natural Area Reserve are doing just fine with a record 105 eggs laid this breeding season, as reported to *ACAP Latest News* by Lindsay Young of Pacific Rim Conservation. “A lot of [banded] birds born in 2009 and 2010 (both large cohorts) are breeding for the first time this year which is why there has been such a bump in the numbers.”

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/100th-Kaena-Laysan-Lindsay-young.jpg)

 100th breeding attempt at Kaena Point in the 2017/18 season, photograph by Lindsay Young

 With thanks to Hob Osterlund ([Kauai Albatross Network](http://www.albatrosskauai.org/wp/)) and Lindsay Young ([Pacific Rim Conservation](https://www.pacificrimconservation.org/)) for information and photographs. The egg transfer project is supported by the [Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources](https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiDLNR/?fref=mentions) and the [U.S. Navy](https://www.facebook.com/USNavy/?fref=mentions).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 02 January 2018*