---
title: "Too long on the nest?  Delayed fledging in Sooty and Wandering Albatrosses"
---

# Too long on the nest?  Delayed fledging in Sooty and Wandering Albatrosses

Peter Ryan ([FitzPatrick Institute](http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/), University of Cape Town, South Africa) and colleagues have published in [Volume 28](http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-28) of [Seabird](http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/journal/archive), the annual journal of the (UK) S[eabird Group](http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/), on exceptionally long chick-rearing periods in Wandering Albatrosses *Diomedea exulans* at [Marion Island](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1371-acap-breeding-sites-no-27-sub-antarctic-marion-island-a-research-laboratory-for-albatrosses-and-petrels?highlight=WyJtYXJpb24iLCJtYXJpb24ncyIsIm5vIiwiJ25vIl0=) and a Sooty Albatross *Phoebetria fusca* at [Gough Island](https://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1322-acap-breeding-sites-no-11-gough-island-south-atlantic-hanging-on-against-the-onslaught-of-its-killer-mice?highlight=WyJnb3VnaCIsImdvdWdoJ3MiLCInZ291Z2gnIiwibm8iLCInbm8iLCJnb3VnaCBubyJd).  The paper concludes that “additional observations may shed further light on this puzzling phenomenon.”

  ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/S/Sooty/Sooty_Albatross_chicks_by_Marianne_de_Villiers.jpg)

 Sooty Albatross chick on Gough Island, photograph by Marienne de Villiers

 **Reference:**

 Ryan, P.G., Ferreira, C., Perold, V., Osborne, A. & Jones, C.W. 2015.  Failure to launch: evidence of protracted parental care in albatrosses.  [*Seabird* 28: 48-51](http://www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/journals/seabird_28/seabird-28-48.pdf).

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 February 2016*