---
title: "UPDATED  Translocated Chatham Albatrosses have a third successful season as hand-fed chicks fledge"
---

# UPDATED  Translocated Chatham Albatrosses have a third successful season as hand-fed chicks fledge

Full (or empty?) house achieved: the last translocated chick has fledged.  Here it is readying its wings for flight the day before on its flower-pot nest.  Note the leg band to help track its fortunes.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/C/Chatham/Last_Chatham_chick_2016.jpg) 

 A total of 110 [ACAP-listed](http://www.acap.aq/en/resources/acap-species2) and [Vulnerable](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3963) ChathamAlbatross *Thalassarche eremita* chicks was moved from the [Pyramid](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/news-archive/60-2013-news-archive/1315-acap-breeding-sites-no-9-the-pyramid-chatham-islands-new-zealand), the species’ sole breeding site, to Point Gap on the main Chatham Island in 2014 and 2105 in an effort to establish a new breeding colony.  The chicks were hand fed on fish and squid until they fledged, only six not surviving due to heat stress ([click here](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/2357-over-a-hundred-chatham-albatrosses-have-fledged-from-their-translocation-colony?highlight=WyJ0YWlrbyIsInRydXN0IiwidHJ1c3QncyIsInRhaWtvIHRydXN0Il0=)).

 Following this success the [Chatham Islands Taiko Trust](http://www.taiko.org.nz/) transferred a further 50 chicks for the third year of the project in February ([click here](http://www.acap.aq/en/news/latest-news/2429-pyramid-to-point-gap-year-three-of-establishing-a-new-colony-of-chatham-albatrosses-is-now-underway?highlight=WyJjaGF0aGFtIl0)).

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/C/Chatham/Chatham_Chick_2016.jpg)

 This year’s chicks have been fledging this month, with just one left expected to go by 15 April; the first two chicks fledged on 31 March.  It is intended to continue translocations for a further two years.

 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/C/Chatham/Chatham_Chick_last_five_2016.jpg)

 The last few chicks to fledge from the 2016 cohort among adult decoys, photographs courtesy of the Chatham Islands Taiko Trust

 Access past news about the translocation project [here](http://www.acap.aq/en/search14?q=Chatham+translocation).  More photos of the 2016 translocation are on the Trust’s [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/chathamtaikotrust/?fref=ts).

 **Reference:**

 Bell, M. 2015.  Establishing a new colony of Chatham Island Albatross in the Chatham Islands, New Zealand.  *Sea Swallow* 64: 4-8.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 April 2016, updated 16 April 2016*