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Australia’s Macquarie Island supports the smallest breeding population of the Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans.

A 2008 review recently published by Birds Australia (http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/soab/state-of-australias-birds.html) focuses on trends in Australian bird populations revealed by about 50 long-term monitoring programmes running for up to 40 years.

The Wandering Albatross is the only ACAP-listed species included.  Information in the review supplied by Rosemary Gales (who convenes ACAP’s Status and Trends Working Group, STWG) shows that only five pairs now breed annually on the island, down from about 10 pairs five to ten years ago and a peak of 28 pairs in the 1960s.  The review identifies longline bycatch and feral pests as the two greatest threats facing the birds.

The breeding birds are protected from human disturbance ashore by a closed-access system, and an attempt to eradicate the introduced mammals will be made in 2010 (click here for an earlier news item on the eradication plans).

See also http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/02/soab_report.html