YRK in flight over Pukekura/Taiaroa Head, 17 September 2024, photograph by Zach Barford

Today, the bells started ringing in Dunedin at 13h00 NZST on New Zealand’s South Island.  In what has become an annual tradition, the city’s bells sound out from churches and schools to mark the return of a new season’s cohort of the biennial breeding Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi in the nearby mainland colony at Pukekura/Taiaroa Head.

The first returnee of the Endangered albatross was sighted and photographed in flight around the colony headland on 17 September by colony guide Zach Barford.  Identified by its yellow, red and black leg-mounted colour bands, “YRK”, a female, is described by The Royal Albatross Centre’s Facebook page as a “rather well-known bird which had previously featured as a former Royal Cam parent who raised [chicks] Atawhai in 2020 and Lilibet in 2022, both with her mate OGK [orange, green, black] who sadly went missing in June 2022.   Having hatched in 1994 YRK is currently 30 years old and has successfully raised many chicks so far in her lifetime.”

Watch a video of the bell ringing within the centre today here.  The 2022 ceremony was also covred by ACAP Latest News.

The 2024 Royal Cam chick in August, photograph by Laura Findlay

Other recent news from the colony is that the chick from the 2024 Royal Cam pair fledged on 23 September.  It hatched on 23 January 2024 and so left the headland exactly eight months later (click here).  The fledging has not as yet received its name, but you can still vote for one of 10 short-listed names (click here).

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 24 September 2024

 
Testing positive: Black-browed Albatrosses breeding on New Island in the South Atlantic, photograph by Ian Strange

Ashley Banyard (Department of Virology, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Addlestone, Surrey, UK) and many colleagues have published open access in the journal Nature Communications on the arrival of avian influenza virus on sub-Antarctic islands and on the Antarctic Continent.  ACAP-listed species affected include Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris and the Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Until recent events, the Antarctic was the only major geographical region in which high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) had never previously been detected. Here we report on the detection of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 HPAIV in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, respectively.   We initially detected H5N1 HPAIV in samples collected from brown skuas at Bird Island, South Georgia on 8th October 2023. Since this detection, mortalities were observed in several avian and mammalian species at multiple sites across South Georgia.  Subsequent testing confirmed H5N1 HPAIV across several sampling locations in multiple avian species and two seal species.  Simultaneously, we also confirmed H5N1 HPAIV in southern fulmar and black-browed albatross in the Falkland Islands v Genetic assessment of the virus indicates spread from South America, likely through movement of migratory birds.  Critically, genetic assessment of sequences from mammalian species demonstrates no increased risk to human populations above that observed in other instances of mammalian infections globally.  Here we describe the detection, species impact and genetic composition of the virus and propose both introductory routes and potential long-term impact on avian and mammalian species across the Antarctic region.  We also speculate on the threat to specific populations following recent reports in the area.”

Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans in the South Atlantic have also succumbed to the influenza, as previously reported in ACAP Latest News.

Reference:

Banyard, A.C., Bennison, A., Byrne, A.M.P. et al. 2024.  Detection and spread of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus H5N1 in the Antarctic Region.  Nature Communications 15, 7433.  doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51490-8.

23 September 2024

The bait-spreading bucket is lowered to the ground to be reloaded with cereal bait, photograph by Lucie Pichot

The project RECI (Restauration des écosystèmes insulaires de l’océan Indien; Restoration of Insular Ecosystems of the Indian Ocean) has announced the completion of the baiting operation to eradicate Norway Rats Rattus norvegicus and House Mice France’s sub-Antarctic Amsterdam

The bait-spreading bucket is suspended below the helicopter on a long cable; photograph by Lucie Pichot

The first baiting application took place over 7-25 June 2024, dropping rodenticide-laced cereal bait over the 5800 ha island, including along the Entrecasteaux cliffs, utilizing a bait-spreading bucket suspended below a single-engine Airbus A350 B3 helicopter, known as a Squirrel.  The helicopter was operated by a team from the Réunion-based company Helilagon.  In addition, rodenticide bait was spread by hand around the Martin-de-Viviès scientific station, with the baiting of interiors, inside ceilings and underneath buildings and field huts.

To guarantee access to bait for all the island’s rats and mice, including any young rodents not weaned at the time of the first application, a second bait treatment commenced on 5 July and was completed on 23 July.  A second manual treatment of the station buildings was also carried out during this time.

Setting up a camera trap to detect rodents on Amsterdam, photograph by Lucie Pichot

During and on completion of the eradication operation the RECI team was also involved with:

placement of biosecurity bait and monitoring stations,
deploying camera traps;
controlling alternative food resources;
monitoring bait availability by the establishment of quadrats distributed over the island; and
dismantling and cleaning up the load sites.

The RECI and Helilagon teams gather after the completion of the eradication operation, photograph by Lucie Pichot

The eradication team and all the TAAF and Helilagon equipment were retrieved on 19 August after four months on the island by the French Antarctic vessel Marion Dufresne during a five-day visit.  Two field assistants have stayed on the island to set up a biosecurity detection network and to monitor camera traps around the island for signs of any surviving rodents.  Fabrice le Bouard, Restauration des écosystèmes insulaires de l’océan Indien, has informed MFM News that so far the signs are promising, with no live rodents being detected on the island in the first couple of weeks after the eradication attempt.  However, as is the standard practice, a two-year period with no signs of rodents is required before Amsterdam can be declared free of its rats and mice.

Information from Fabrice le Bouard of RECI and the Facebook page of Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (TAAF).  Photographs by Lucie Pichot, TAAF.

Co-published by the Mouse-Free Marion Project.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Office, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 19 September 2024, updated 22 September 2024

Not your usual view, but this Northern Royal Albatross clearly shows in orange leg band, photograph by Michael Mason

Although the use of technology to follow albatrosses and other pelagic seabirds at sea via the use of bird-mounted electronic loggers and transmitters (“biologging”) has hugely increased our understanding of quite where seabirds go away from their breeding islands, there is still value and an interest in learning about at-sea movements from recoveries and sightings of birds bearing leg-mounted bands.  The use of alphanumeric colour bands and digital zoom cameras is allowing birds photographed at sea on tourist pelagic tours to be individually identified, and their ‘back stories’ obtained from national banding schemes.  Two recent examples of colour-banded great albatrosses, Diomedea photographed at sea follow.

This 2018/19 cohort Northern Royal Albatross shows its orange leg band in flight, photograph by Trevor Hardaker

Northern Royal Albatross

One of three Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi seen on a Zest for Birds pelagic trip on 5 September 2024 off the coast of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula was photographed bearing a plain orange plastic band on its left leg and a metal band on its right,  The bird was banded as a chick in the mainland colony on New Zealand’s Pukekura/Taiaroa Head on the tip of the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin.  That colour was used to band the approximately 30 birds that fledged in 2019, which would make the photographed bird five years old.

 
Alphanumeric colour bands have been used on Northern Royal Albatross chicks at Taiaroa Head from the 2022/23 breeding season, allowing banded birds to be individually recognized from photographs taken at sea, photograph from the Royal Cam Albatross Group New Zealand Facebook page.

An old male Wandering Albatross White W94 off Tasmania, photograph by Xu Shi

Wandering Albatross

The Seabirds and Pelagics Australia Facebook page has reported a Vulnerable Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans with colour band White W94 photographed on an Eaglehawk pelagic trip off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania on the weekend of 7/8 September 2024.

Karine Delord, Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, France reports to ACAP Latest News that the bird was banded as a chick in the Pointe Basse colony on France’s Possession Island, Crozet Islands in the southern Indian Ocean on 01 October 1981 (making it now 43 years old).  Subsequently identified to be a male, it was regularly observed breeding in its natal colony from 1988 to 2013 with two different partners over the periods 1988 to 2005 and 2010 to 2013.  Since then it has been recorded back on the island during the pre-breeding period but without any subsequent signs of it breeding, with the last sighting being made in 2022.

Another view of White W94, photograph by Xu Shi

Karine Delord writes: “Biologging has enabled us to gain a better understanding of the distribution at sea of large albatrosses breeding in the French Austral Islands, such as on Possession.  Juveniles, immatures and sabbatical adults travel around the Southern Ocean, with the Tasman Sea appearing to be of particular importance as a region to visit.”

It seems banded Wandering Albatrosses are quite often identified from Eaglehawk pelagic trips, including four different birds that have been previously reported by ACAP Latest News coming from four different breeding islands: Bird Island in the South Atlantic, Marion and Possession Islands in the southern Indian and Macquarie Island in the southern Pacific.  Quite a cosmopolitan meeting place!

With thanks to Karine Delord, Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, France and Trevor Hardaker, Zest for Birds.

References:

Delord, K., Barbraud, C., Bost, C.-A, Cherel, Y., Guinet, C. et al. 2014.  Atlas of Top Predators from French Southern Territories in the Southern Indian Ocean.  CNRS Research Report.  253 pp.

Weimerskirch, H., Cherel, Y., Delord, K., Jaeger, A., Patrick, S.C. & Riotte-Lambert, L. 2014.  Lifetime foraging patterns of the wandering albatross: life on the move!  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 450: 68-78.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 20 September 2024