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title: "Northern Royal Albatrosses at The Royal Albatross Centre start to hatch for the tourists"
---

# Northern Royal Albatrosses at The Royal Albatross Centre start to hatch for the tourists

The [Royal Albatross Centre](http://www.albatross.org.nz/) is located at [Taiaroa Head](http://www.acap.aq/index.php/en/component/content/article/14-news/latest-news/1307-acap-breeding-sites-no-6-taiaroa-head-pukekura-new-zealand-an-albatross-colony-on-the-mainland) on the tip of the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand.  The centre is owned and operated by the charitable [Otago Peninsula Trust](http://www.albatross.org.nz/otago-peninsula-trust) whose purpose and objectives are the protection and enhancement of the Otago Peninsula.   Taiaroa Head itself is a nature reserve managed by the New Zealand [Department of Conservation](http://www.doc.govt.nz).

 [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3954](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3954)[Endangered](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=30005) Northern Royal Albatrosses *Diomedea sanfordi *breed on Taiaroa Head where they may be viewed by the public from the glassed Richdale Albatross Observatory, opened in 1983. Thirty-three eggs have been laid this (2013/14) season.  The first egg is now starting to pip.  The rangers have recorded 102 individually marked albatrosses so far this season, with seven colour-banded adolescents aged between five and seven years of age returning to the breeding locality for the first time.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/N/Northern_Royal/Northern Royal Albatross Taiaroa Head Junichi Sugushita shrunk.jpg)

 A Northern Royal Albatross family at Taiaroa Head

 Photograph by Junichi Sugushita

 Thirty-six pairs bred in 2012/13 with an upward trend since 1939 ([click here](https://data.acap.aq/breeding_site.cfm?bs_id=782)).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 January 2014*