--- title: "ACAP Breeding Sites No. 33. Isla Guadalupe, Mexico supports an increasing population of Laysan Albatrosses despite predation by feral cats" --- # ACAP Breeding Sites No. 33. Isla Guadalupe, Mexico supports an increasing population of Laysan Albatrosses despite predation by feral cats ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Islands/Guadalupe Ross Wanless s.jpg)  [Isla Guadalupe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_Island) lies 240 km off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.  The 244-km² island has a small human population that mainly subsists on fishing.  During the 1983/84 winter breeding season [Near Threatened](http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3958) Laysan Albatrosses *Phoebastria immutabilis* bred on Isla Guadalupe for the first time in recorded history.  The population had reached 45 pairs in 1991/92, 120-190 pairs in 1999-2001 (which included small colonies of <50 nests each on nearby Islote Zapato and Islote Negro), 337 pairs in 2005 and 340 pairs in 2007.  In 2009 a census yielded 457 pairs, showing that the Laysans of Guadalupe are steadily on the increase, thought due mainly to immigration. ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/Guadalupe 15 Ross Wanless s.jpg) The main colony on Isla Guadalupe supported *c*. 200 pairs in 2003 The colony is situated on the inland plateau, about 100 m above sea level, with sheer cliffs dropping down to the coastal plain where the naval garrison and fishing village are situated ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/Guadalupe 14 Ross Wanless s.jpg) A smaller, satellite colony on one of the small islets close to the main island, which had just over 50 pairs/active nests in early 2003 ![](https://www.acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/L/Laysan/Guadalupe 16 Ross Wanless s.jpg) A Laysan Albatross pair in the main colony on Guadalupe display together All photographs by Ross Wanless Isla Guadalupe and its surrounding waters are a [Biosphere Reserve](http://www.islandconservation.org/where/?id=26) declared in April 2005 but it suffers from introduced predators, although the introduced domestic goats and feral dogs have now been eradicated.  In 2002 a hunter from Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI), Mexico’s island conservation organisation, trapped a feral cat in the colony that had learnt to kill adult albatrosses.  The next year albatross researcher Bill Henry [reported](http://www2.cec.org/nampan/pca/isla-guadalupe) “[w]hen I began my research in 2003, I arrived to a sad and gory scene.  Feral cats had killed 60 breeding adult albatrosses.  Their remains littered the colony and were scattered about with abandoned dead eggs.  In the short term our [GECI] efforts have stopped the killing and we have not witnessed any new deaths since.  However hundreds of cats remain on the island, posing a constant threat to the albatrosses and the other birds.”  Research was undertaken on the island by GECI in 2009 towards their eventual eradication. [Click here](http://www.conabio.gob.mx/institucion/proyectos/resultados/InfDQ013.pdf) for a recent Guadalupe restoration project report in Spanish. **Selected References:** Aguirre-Muñoz, A., Samaniego-Herrera, A., Luna-Mendoza, L., Ortiz-Alcaraz, A., Rodríguez-Malagón, M., Méndez-Sánchez, F., Félix-Lizárraga M., Hernández-Montoya, J.C., González-Gómez, R., Torres-García, F., Barredo-Barberena, J.M. & Latofski-Robles, M. 2011. [ Island restoration in Mexico: ecological outcomes after systematic eradications of invasive mammal](http://www.issg.org/pdf/publications/Island_Invasives/pdfHQprint/3Aguirre-MunozI.pdf)s.  In: Veitch, C.R., Clout, M.N. & Towns, D.R. (Eds).  *Island Invasives: Eradication and Management.  Proceedings of the International Conference on Island Invasives*. Gland: IUCN & Auckland: Centre for Biodiversity & Biosecurity.  pp. 250-258. Aguirre-Muñoz, A., Samaniego-Herrera, A., Luna-Mendoza, L., Ortiz-Alcaraz, A., Rodríguez-Malagón, M., Méndez-Sánchez, F., Félix-Lizárraga, Méndez-Sánchez, F., González-Gómez, R., Torres-García, F., Hernández-Montoya, J.C., Barredo-Barberena, J.M. & Latofski-Robles, M 2011.  [Eradications of invasive mammals on islands in Mexico: the roles of history and the collaboration between government agencies, local communities and a non-government organisation](http://www.issg.org/pdf/publications/Island_Invasives/pdfHQprint/4Aguirre-MunozE.pdf).  In:Veitch, C.R., Clout, M.N. & Towns, D.R. (Eds).  *Island Invasives: Eradication and Management.  Proceedings of the International Conference on Island Invasives*. Gland: IUCN & Auckland: Centre for Biodiversity & Biosecurity.  pp. 386-394. Dunlap, E. 1988.  Laysan Albatrosses nesting Guadalupe Island, Mexico.  [*American Birds* 42: 180-181.](https://www.googledrive.com/host/0B0PLtJjhTxnkZDAzOGQxY2EtOTIzOS00ZjlkLWJhYmMtYWYzY2QwYmQ2ZjFi/C)%20Documents%20&%20Separata%20of%20MAHN-84/MAHN-84%20Archives%20Ornithological%20Monographs%20and%20Reprints/MAHN-84%20Archives%20Ornithological%20reprints%20(5001-6000)/MAHN-84%20Archives%20Ornithological%20Reprints%205416.pdf) Gallo-Reynoso, J.P. & Figueroa-Carranza, A.L. 1996.  The breeding colony of Laysan Albatrosses on Isla de Guadalupe, Mexico.  *Western Birds*27: 70-76. Henry, R.W. & Aguirre, A. 2007.  Tale of the Guadalupe Laysan Albatross.  [*Pronatura*](http://www.topp.org/blog/pronatura_article_guadalupe_laysan_albatross). Luna-Mendoza, L., Barredo-Barberena, J.M., Hernández-Montoya, J.C., Aguirre-Muñoz, A., Méndez-Sánchez, F.A., Ortiz-Alcaraz, A. & Félix-Lizárraga, M. 2011.   [Planning for the eradication of feral cats on Guadalupe Island, México: home range, diet, and bait acceptance](http://www.issg.org/pdf/publications/Island_Invasives/pdfHQprint/2Luna-Mendoza.pdf).  In: Veitch, C.R., Clout, M.N. & Towns, D.R. (Eds). *Island Invasives: Eradication and Management.  Proceedings of the International Conference on Island Invasives*. Gland: IUCN & Auckland: Centre for Biodiversity & Biosecurity.  pp. 192-197. Pitman, R.L., Walker, W.A., Everett, W.T. & Gallo-Reynoso, J.P. 2004.  Population status, foods and foraging of Laysan Albatrosses *Phoebastria immutabilis* nesting on Guadalupe Island, Mexico.  [*Marine Ornithology* 32: 159-165](http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/32_2/32_2_159-165.pdf). *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer & Ross Wanless, [BirdLife Global Seabird Programme](http://www.birdlife.org/seabirds/), 14 June 2013*