Junichi Sugishita (Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) and colleagues have published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology on recording meal sizes of Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi chicks with an automatic weighing system.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Periodic weighing of seabird chicks is labour-intensive and repeated handling can cause high levels of disturbance to chicks.  Although automatic weighing systems using a fibreglass nest have been designed for albatross species with a pedestal nest made of mud, this approach is inappropriate for great albatross species (genus Diomedea) whose nests consist of a low mound of soil and vegetation.  We developed an automatic weighing technique, using a digital scale beneath a natural nest, to remotely measure meal size in great albatrosses.  To illustrate the system’s capability when used coupled with time-lapse cameras, we present sample data by comparing meal sizes fed to chicks by male and female parents of northern royal albatross (Diomedea sanfordi).  Our weighing system is not only applicable to other great albatross species, but can also be modified to allow automatic weighing of other terrestrial breeders.”

Junichi Sugishita adjusts his weighing balance underneath a watching Northern Royal Albatross chick

Reference:

Sugishita, J., McKenzie, M. Torres, L.G. & Seddon, P.J. 2017.  Automated techniques for measuring meal size in great albatrosses.  New Zealand Journal of Ecology 41(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.20417/nzjecol.41.6.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 25 October 2016

The Operations Advisor for the Gough Island Restoration Programme, New Zealander Keith Springer, returned from a visit to Gough Island earlier this month when ACAP Latest News met up with him in a Cape Town Korean restaurant.

Keith has reported on his three-week visit to the island in a blog hosted by the UK’s Royal Society for Bird Preservation. The RSPB is taking the lead in plans to eradicate the island’s “killer” House Mice Mus musculus  which are taking the ACAP-listed and Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena to the edge of extinction.  The mice result in the death of many downy chicks every winter, leading to an unsustainably low breeding success.  A number of other seabird species breeding on the island is known or thought to be seriously affected by mice.

Mice attack a Tristan Albatross chick on Gough at night - it later died from its wounds, photograph by Ross Wanless

In his third and last contribution Keith has good news: “Nothing that I saw on Gough Island would be a show-stopper for the mouse eradication project. There is no doubt in my mind that there will be challenges along the way but planning will help overcome these ”.

Keith considers the challenges of Gough’s isolation in mid-Atlantic, the restricted capacity of the South African weather station and most importantly the island’s often poor and changeable weather can all be overcome and an aerial drop of poison bait by helicopter has a good chance of succeeding.  He ends “all in all it has been a very informative trip.  Once fundraising has got to the point where the project is given the green light to proceed, then planning can begin in earnest.”  Welcome the day!

Read another news item on Keith's trip to Gough here, and read more items in ACAP Latest News on Gough’s mice here.

Keith Springer (centre) with 2004 Gough team members, Andrea Angel and Ross Wanless, in Cape Town after the voyage

Photograph by John Cooper

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 24 October 2016

Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs) equipped with cameras offer a new and convenient way of surveying colonially-breeding seabirds with less disturbance and more accuracy than by conducting ground counts (click here for an example of their use).

However, flying drones above seabirds (and other wildlife) poses conservation issues.  What minimum height should be used to avoid disturbance from the sight or sound of a moving object overhead?  Also what should be done to reduce the risk of mid-air collisions with flying birds with possible mortalities– and damage to the drone itself?  In addition to the requirement for a code of practice for the use of drones in research and monitoring there is a need to control the use of drones for purely recreational purposes over or near seabird colonies, most especially those that support threatened species.

Most ACAP-listed albatross and petrels breed on uninhabited islands so disturbance caused by recreational drones (most small remotely controlled quadcopters) seems likely to be uncommon.  But colonies of surface-nesting albatrosses close to human populations (such as on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu and on South Island, New Zealand) may be at risk - as shown by a recent example from Taiaroa Head in New Zealand where Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi breed when a drone was found crash landed within five metres of an albatross nest site.

A Northern Royal Albatross guards its chick at Taiaroa Head, photograph  by Lyndon Perriman

“The Department of Conservation [DOC] are concerned about drones being flown over the royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Head after one crashed there last week.  DOC said the drone crash came as the number of tourists and locals using drones at the colony of the endangered bird had increased over the last year.  The crashed drone, a white and silver DJI Phantom 3 advanced model, was found undamaged within the colony on Thursday last week by DOC ranger Lyndon Perriman.  In the second incident within a week, Mr Perriman spoke to the owner of a drone being flown around the car park beside the Albatross Centre.

As a result the Otago Peninsula Trust had erected temporary signs in the car park saying drones were not allowed in the area, with permanent signs will be erected soon”.

All aircraft, including drones, are restricted from using the airspace above the Taiaroa Head albatross colony, a nature reserve with public entry by permit only, as they could disturb wildlife and be a hazard to visitors.  Recreational and commercial use of drones on or over public conservation land and waters of New Zealand requires authorisation from DOC; drone operators are also required to abide by Civil Aviation rules, including not operating in restricted airspace.  Breaching of regulations could lead to prison sentences of up to two years and fines of up to NZ$100 000.

Lyndon Perriman ho0olds up the no-fly zone sign

Read more:

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/drone-concerns-albatross-colony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBHY-wi1BRM&app=desktop

http://www.doc.org.nz/news/media-releases/2016/drone-found-within-albatross-colony/

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 October 2016

The 6th International Albatross and Petrel Conference (IAPC6) held in Barcelona, Spain last month ended with scientist and poet Víctor Bonetarbolí reading out a poem he had written especially for the conference in both Catalan and English.  He was introduced by conference organizer, Jacob González-Solís, who gave the closing address, which included making the awards for the best oral and poster presentations by students.  The closing address with the student awards and poetry reading may be viewed and listened to on a video link that can be found on the conference website (click here).

Víctor recites his poem at the IAPC6 Closing Ceremony

potser en altres planetes

s’ocupen més de viure que no pas de no morir
i no busquen problemes per a tantes solucions
que arriben atzaroses
a mans de qui les vol
potser en altres planets
no amunteguen tan de saber
en castells que fan de talaia
o que no vegis res

potser en altres planets
saben que el morir-se
és problema o enigma que es resol en sí mateix:
només cal conjugar el verb

maybe in other planets

they care more about living than about trying not to die
and they do not look for problems to so many solutions
falling by chance
to the hands of a willing man

maybe in other planets
they do not pile so much knowledge
making castles from where to watch over
or that prevent the sight

maybe in other planets
they know that to die
is a problem or enigma that is solved in itself:
you simply need to conjugate the verb

víctor bonetarbolí, Tucston – La Barceloneta – Tucston, setembre 2016

Click here for a report on the conference and a list of oral and presentation presentations on ACAP-listed species and on bycatch issues.

With thanks to Jacob González-Solís.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 20 October 2016