On ‘Macca’ Light-mantled Albatrosses breed among sub-Antarctic megaherbs, here the broad-leafed Macquarie Island Cabbage Stilbocarpa polaris

NOTE:  This post continues an occasional series that features photographs of the 31 ACAP-listed species, along with information from and about their photographers.  Here, Jaimie Cleeland, a Fisheries Scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the University of Tasmania, describes her research conducted on the globally Near Threatened Light-mantled Albatrosses Phoebetria palpebrata that breed on Australia’s sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.

Jaimie Cleeland approaches Light-mantled Albatrosses breeding on the steep slopes of Macquarie Island; all such visits are conducted under a research permit

If you’re ever lucky enough to visit one of the many sub-Antarctic islands that Light-mantled Albatrosses breed on – you will mostly likely hear them before you see them!  Their Sky Point display, coupled with a distinctive – and evocative - “pee-aahh” call, is what first caught my attention and drew my eyes to the steep escarpments of Macquarie Island.  It is on these exposed cliffs that the Light-mantled Albatrosses breed – making it challenging for field biologists, such as myself, to access their nests to check their breeding status or read the number of a leg band.  Although it doesn’t usually take very long – perhaps just a few visits to the monitoring colony before you achieve “mountain goat” abilities and become comfortable working safely at heights. It is then your attention can turn to their aerial acrobatics as pairs whizz by in synchronized flight – a display of courtship.

The light blue sulcus on the lower mandible distinguishes the Light-mantled from the Sooty Albatross with its yellow sulcus

During the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project (MIPEP), I regularly visited several of the island’s research monitoring sites to conduct breeding surveys of Light-mantled Albatrosses from 2011 to 2014 (click here).  In 2013, with the help of a dedicated team of rabbit and rodent hunters, we scoured the whole island, finding 2151 occupied nests.  A ground search of this magnitude, conducted over steep terrain, was a huge achievement for our team.

A Light-mantled Albatross chick sits up to eye the photographer

Light-mantled Albatrosses then became a subject of my PhD thesis at the University of Tasmania.  Even though I was no longer living on “Macca”, as the island is affectionally called by its human visitors, I spent my days trying to understand their patterns in foraging behaviour and their vulnerability to invasive species, climate change and fisheries impacts.  I found that during breeding, Light-mantled Albatrosses foraged farther south than any of the other albatrosses that breed on Macquarie and during the non-breeding period some tracked individuals even circumnavigated the whole of Antarctica.

Light-mantled Albatrosses gather to meet and greet

Like all albatrosses, Light-mantled Albatrosses spend the majority of their life at sea.  For the birds breeding on Macquarie I found large-scale climate cycles such as the El Nino – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Southern Annular Mode influenced their survival.  Despite their predominantly oceanic life.  I also found conditions at the colony can impact this species. Damage to nesting habitat on the steep slopes of Macquarie Island caused by heavy rabbit grazing reduced their likelihood of breeding.

A Light-mantled Albatross fly by

Luckily the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project was successful in removing rabbits, rats and mice from the island and the slopes that the Light-mantled Albatross call home are lush and green once more!

Selected Publications:

Beal, M., Dias, M.P., Phillips, R.A., Oppel, S., Hazin, C., Pearmain, E.J., Adams, J. , Anderson, D.J., Antolos, M., Arata, J.A., Arcos, J.M., Arnould, J.P., Awkerman, J., Bell, E., Bell, M. Carey, M., Carle, R., Clay, T.A., Cleeland, J., Colodro, V., Conners, M. Cruz-Flores, M., Cuthbert, R., Delord, K., Deppe, L., Dilley, B.J., Dinis, H., Elliott, G., De Felipe, F., J. Felis, M.G. Forero, A. Freeman, A. Fukuda, J. González-Solís, J.P. Granadeiro, A. Hedd, P. Hodum, J. M. Igual, A. Jaeger, T.J. Landers, M. Le Corre, A. Makhado, B. Metzger, T. Militão, W.A. Montevecchi, V. Morera-Pujol, L. Navarro-Herrero, D. Nel, D. Nicholls, D. Oro, R. Ouni, K. Ozaki, F. Quintana, R. Ramos, T. Reid, J.M. Reyes-González, C. Robertson, G. Robertson, M.S. Romdhane, P.G. Ryan, P. Sagar, F. Sato, S. Schoombie, R.P. Scofield, S.A. Shaffer, N.J. Shah, K.L. Stevens, C. Surman, R.M. Suryan, A. Takahashi, V. Tatayah, G. Taylor, D.R. Thompson, L. Torres, K. Walker, R. Wanless, S.M. Waugh, H. Weimerskirch, T. Yamamoto, Z. Zajkova, L. Zango & P. Catry 2021.  Global political responsibility for the conservation of albatrosses and large petrels.  Science Advances (10).  DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abd7225. [click here].

Carneiro, A.P.B., Pearmain, E.J., Oppel, S., Clay, T.A., Phillips, R.A., Bonnet-Lebrun, A.-S., Wanless, R.M., Abraham, E., Richard, Y., Rice, J., Handley, J., Davies, T.E., Dilley, B.J., Ryan, P.G., Small, C., Arata, J., Arnould, J.P.Y., Bell, E., Bugoni, L., Campioni, L., Catry, P., Cleeland, J., Deppe, L., Elliott, G., Freeman, A., González-Solís, J., Granadeiro, J.P. Grémillet, D., Landers, T.J., Makhado, A., Nel, D., Nicholls, D.G., Rexer-Huber, K., Robertson, C.J.R., Sagar, P.M., Scofield, P., Stahl, J.-C., Stanworth, A., Stevens, K.L., Trathan, P.N., Thompson, D.R., Torres, L., Walker, K., Waugh, S.M., Weimerskirch, H. & Dias, M.P. 2020.  A framework for mapping the distribution of seabirds by integrating tracking, demography and phenology.  Journal of Applied Ecology  doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13568.  [click here]

Cleeland, J. 2017. Factors that drive demographic change in a community of albatrosses.  PhD thesis.  Hobart: University of Tasmania.  153 pp.  [click here]

Cleeland, J.B., Alderman, R., Bindoff, A., Lea, M.-A., McMahon, C.R., Phillips, R.A., Raymond, B., Sumner, M.D., Terauds, A., Wotherspoon, S.J. & Hindell, M.A. 2019.  Factors influencing the habitat use of sympatric albatrosses from Macquarie Island.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 609: 221-237. [click here]

Cleeland, J.B., Pardo, D., Raymond, B., Terauds, A., Alderman, R., McMahon, C.R., Phillips, R.A., Lea, M.-A. & Hindell, M.A. 2020.  Introduced species and extreme weather as key drivers of reproductive output in three sympatric albatrosses.  Scientific Reports: 10: 8199. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64662-5.  [click here]

Cleeland, J.B., Pardo, D., Raymond, B., Tuck, G.N., McMahon, C.R., Phillips, R.A., Alderman, R., Lea, M.-A. & Hindell, M.A. 2021.  Disentangling the influence of three major threats on the demography of an albatross community.  Frontiers in Marine Science doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.578144.  [click here]

Jones, C.W., Risi, M.M., Cleeland, J. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  First evidence of mouse attacks on adult albatrosses and petrels breeding on sub-Antarctic Marion and Gough Islands.  Polar Biology  doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-02444-6.  [click here].

Requena, S., Oppel, S., Bond, A.L., Hall, A., Cleeland, J., Crawford, R.J.M., Davies, D., Dilley, B.J., Makhado, A., Ratcliffe, N., Reid, T.A., Ronconi, R.A., Schofield, A., Steinfurth, A., Wege, M., Bester, M.[N.] & Ryan, P.G. 2020.  Marine hotspots of activity inform protection of a threatened community of pelagic species in a large oceanic jurisdiction.  Animal Conservation  doi.org/10.1111/acv.12572.  [click here]

Jaimie Cleeland, Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston and University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia, 15 October 2021

Peter Ryan, Director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology

Professor Peter Ryan, Director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and Chair of the Mouse-Free Marion Project’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, recently presented an illustrated talk on the conservation of Marion Island.  The online talk on 7 October was in the Unlocking Nature series arranged by the Leadership for Conservation in Africa.  The LCA invites a diverse range of speakers to share their conservation stories with global audiences.

After the cats…tackling mice on Marion Island

In his presentation, titled “After the cats…tackling mice on Marion Island”, Peter discussed the devastating impacts introduced House Mice Mus musculus are having on the seabirds of the island in the southern Indian Ocean, attacking and killing both chicks and breeding adults of surface-nesting albatrosses and burrowing petrels.  He described the development of techniques that have enabled operations to eradicate mice and other rodents from sub-Antarctic islands successfully, such as Antipodes and Macquarie, and this year’s effort to eradicate mice on Gough Island.  He then went on to describe the plans currently underway by the Mouse-Free Marion Project to eradicate the mice on South Africa’s Marion Island.  If successful, Marion will be the largest sub-Antarctic island freed of its mice in a single operation.

Next in line?  A Grey-headed Albatross chick begs for food on Marion Island, with the carcass of a chick killed by mice on an adjacent nest; photograph by Ben Dilley

The presentation was followed by a lively Q&A session, with Peter and Anton Wolfaardt, the Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager, answering the audience’s many questions.  The 80-minute recording of the whole presentation can also be found on Mouse-Free Marion website in the interviews section.

With thanks to Robyn Adams, Communications Officer, Mouse-Free Marion Project.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 October 2021

Voting in New Zealand’s Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau/Bird of the Year (BOTY) competition for 2021 will be open from 18-31 October, and once again the globally Endangered and Nationally Critical Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis is on the list (click here).

New Zealand’s BOTY competition commenced in 2005 and despite the country being arguably the seabird capital of the world, with no less than 10 species of breeding albatrosses, none has ever come out as the top BOTY bird.  Time for a change according to the support group “Vote Toroa” that is championing the New Zealand-endemic Antipodean Albatross, which breeds on only two island groups, and is threatened by fisheries bycatch in domestic international and South American waters.  In BOTY2020 the Antipodean Albatross came second after intially being in the lead.  This year albatross lovers are hoping it will gain the top step of the podium.

A colour-banded Antipodean Albatross on Antipodes Island, photograph by Kath Walker

View all the candidates up for BOTY2021 here, and find out how the voting will work following an “instant runoff voting system” by ranking up to five birds here.  Voting is world-wide and is not restricted to New Zealanders.  As before the ACAP-listed and both globally and nationally Vulnerable Back Petrel Procellaria parkinsoni is on the list (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 October 2021

The United Kingdom-based Seabird Group has announced that the 15th International Seabird Group Conference will be hosted by University College Cork over 22-25 August 2022 in Cork, Ireland.  The conference was originally due to be held in Cork this year but will now take place in 2022.

“The Seabird Group, a registered charity, was founded in 1966 to promote and help coordinate the study and conservation of seabirds.  It maintains close links with other national and international ornithological bodies.  Members receive, and can contribute to, regular newsletters, and the colour journal Seabird, published annually.   The Group organises regular international conferences and provides small grants towards research and survey projects. It was part of the SEABIRD 2000 partnership, a major initiative to census [sic] all the seabirds breeding in Britain and Ireland between 1998 and 2002.  The Group actively encourages its members to get involved in surveys of seabirds and other research work.”

More information will be posted on the conference when it becomes available.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 October 2021