Will Short-tailed Albatrosses start breeding on Mukojima Island for the first time next year?

A pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses Phoebastria albatrus (Red Y01 from the first translocated cohort along with a naturally-reared chick from Torishima) has been observed at the same place in the translocation site on Mukojima in the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands from last December to this month.  They have often been seen engaging in courtship dance displays together (click here).


Red Y01 and its naturally-reared partner display together on Mukojima, 18 February 2012
The other birds are models
Photograph by Tomohiro Deguchi

Tomohiro Deguchi of the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology expects the courting pair will start to breed in the next season in 2013.  If they do so, then the attempts to start a new breeding colony of Short-tails on a non-volcanically active island will have met with success.  Here's hoping!

Search this web site on "Mukojima" to read earlier ACAP Latest News stories on the Short-tail translocation exercise.

With thanks to Tomohiro Deguchi, Yamashina Institute of Ornithology for information and his photograph.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 30 April 2012


The Agreement on the
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ACAP is a multilateral agreement which seeks to conserve listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters by coordinating international activity to mitigate known threats to their populations.

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