ACAP Latest News has regularly reported on the deprivations introduced House Mice Mus musculus are causing to surface- and burrow-nesting seabirds on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Marion Island, including to four species of ACAP-listed and globally threatened albatrosses (click here).

A Light-mantled Sooty Albatross Phoebetria palpebrata "scalped" by mice on Marion Island, photograph by Peter Ryan

In the most recent posting describing disturbing attacks by mice on Marion’s albatrosses it was stated that “South Africa is now considering making an eradication attempt on the island, as briefly mentioned in its Implementation Report (AC10 Inf 10) to ACAP’s meetings in Wellington, New Zealand [last year]” (click here).

As well as by research publications listed in the recent post this consideration was influenced by a feasibility study conducted in 2015 by island eradication expert John Parkes from New Zealand.  Inter alia, his feasibility study calls for increased knowledge of the island’s mice needed to ensure a high chance of their eradication.

An Environmental Officer to spend a year on the island from April is to be appointed. The appointee’s work programme will concentrate on conducting field work on the mice with the following topics to be covered:

• Conduct a large-scale bait uptake trial by mice at Marion Island in May 2018;
• Assess lethal doses of poison bait on captive mice;
• Conduct regular surveys of mouse breeding status over winter (April-October);
• Estimate crude densities of mice across an altitudinal gradient through the target baiting period (May-September); and
• Monitor cloud heights over the baiting window using remote cameras.

Read more here.

Reference:

Parkes, J. 2016. Eradication of House Mice Mus musculus from Marion Island: a review of feasibility, constraints and risks. BirdLife South Africa Occasional Report Series No. 1. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 January 2018

Following on from two recent posts to ACAP Latest News of albatrosses at sea that had been daubed with paint and had a plastic band wrapped around the bill, Leandro Bugoni (Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, Brazil) reports to ALN of an adult Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche chlororhynchos (globally Endangered) with a long packing strap (as commonly used to secure boxes of fish or squid bait) tightly knotted around its left leg.

The bird was spotted at sea on 22 February 2006, off southern Brazil (33.95S; 51.45W) by Captain Celso Oliveira of the long liner Ana Amaral I, which was trolling and hand lining for tuna at the time. Attention was then drawn to its ‘unusual long tail feathers’.

Leandro, aboard the long liner sampling birds for his PhD degree, then used a cast net to capture the bird, confirming that the trailing objects were not tail feathers but a white plastic packing strap.

 The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross with the knotted packing strap in place and showing the injured leg after its removal

In the hand the bird was active and appeared healthy despite a wound from the strap, suggesting it been knotted around the leg for some time. Following removal of the strap a blood sample was taken for stable isotope analysis and molecular sexing (it was determined to be a male) and moult and mensural data collected. The albatross was banded with CEMAVE/ICMBio U29584 on its right, uninjured leg and then released at sea.

The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, freed of the packing strap, flies away after release

All photographs from Leandro Bugoni

It seems certain the strap had been deliberately tied to the bird’s leg, likely by a fisher for seemingly no purpose other than idle amusement.

With thanks to Leandro Bugoni.

References:

Bugoni, L., Neves, T.S., Leite Jr., N.O., Carvalho, D., Sales, G., Furness, R.W., Stein, C.E., Peppes, F.V., Giffoni, B.B. & Monteiro, D.S. 2008. Potential bycatch of seabirds and turtles in hook-and-line fisheries of the Itaipava Fleet, Brazil. Fisheries Research 90: 217-224.

Bugoni, L., Neves, T.S., Peppes, F.V. & Furness, R.W. 2008. An effective method for trapping scavenging seabirds at sea. Journal of Field Ornithology 79: 308-313.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 29 January 2018

Registration and abstract submission are now open for the 14th International Seabird Group Conference to be held in Liverpool, UK, 3-6 September 2018; until 16 March for oral and poster abstracts. Early-bird registration is available until 13 April.

“The conference promises to be an exciting showcase of the latest seabird research, located within the heart of the city of Liverpool, famous for its maritime history and cultural diversity”.

Arctic Fulmar at sea

Keynote speakers include Kyle Elliott (“Keeping alight the ocean’s brightest fires of life”; McGill University, Canada), Ana Sanz-Aguillar (“Seabird survival: critical moments and mortality drivers”; Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Spain), and Thierry Boulinier (“Host-pathogen interactions in space and time: seabirds as key models to address basic and applied issues”; Le centre national de la recherche scientifique, France), whose talks about seabird ecology, physiology and conservation will complement two and a half days of oral and poster presentations. Click here to read their abstracts.

The conference is being organized by the University of Liverpool. It will be held on the university campus within the city.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 26 January 2018

The 2018 Red List update process for birds is now under way and BirdLife International’s Red List team has begun posting new topics on the Globally Threatened Bird Forums’ website. There are fora for different categories of birds, including one for seabirds.

Two ACAP-listed albatrosses are currently under review, with information on them available on line, along with requests for comments:

Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis: downlist from Critically Endangered to Endangered?

Shy Albatross Thalassarche cauta: uplist from Near Threatened to Vulnerable?

Amsterdam Albatross, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Comments on these two albatrosses will be considered in July. Preliminary proposals for changing their category of threat will then be posted. An opportunity to comment further will be given before final recommendations to IUCN are collated. The new and revised species assessments and updated factsheets will be published on the BirdLife International website and incorporated into the 2018 IUCN Red List, currently scheduled for release in November.

“This year, we are also inviting people to send in suggestions for species that may warrant an urgent Red List status change. In order to make sure that there is sufficient time for species to be given a full re-assessment against IUCN Criteria, and to be put through the forum process, the deadline for these submissions is 31 March 2018.”

With thanks to James Westrip, BirdLife Red List Team.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 January 2018