Abstracts are due by 14 February for the SCAR Open Science Conference, to be held in Auckland, New Zealand over 25 to 28 August 2014 (click here).

Theme 33 entitled Influence of top predators on ecosystem diversity around Antarctica: present processes and historical signals is relevant to the aims and objectives of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

“This session will aim to consider the influence of top predators on ecosystem diversity around Antarctica: present processes and historical signals.  Using data from a range of taxonomic groups including seabirds, penguins, seals, and whales, we seek presentations that will explore the relationships between predators and their environment over a range of spatial and temporal scales.  We encourage multi-disciplinary presentations that develop or test ecological relationships between top predators and the marine ecosystem.  We will seek to bring together experts with a broad range of field and analytical methodologies (e.g. telemetry, remote sensing) to provide a foundation for our current knowledge on how predators influence ecosystem diversity as well as to stimulate ideas for collaborative research to address these issues in the face of environmental variability and climate-driven changes in the Antarctic marine ecosystem.”

Buller's Albatrosses, photograph by Jean-Claude Stahl

With thanks to Yan Ropert-Coudert, Secretary, SCAR Life Sciences Group for information.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 15 January 2014

The Royal Albatross Centre is located at Taiaroa Head on the tip of the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand.  The centre is owned and operated by the charitable Otago Peninsula Trust whose purpose and objectives are the protection and enhancement of the Otago Peninsula.   Taiaroa Head itself is a nature reserve managed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

Endangered Northern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea sanfordi breed on Taiaroa Head where they may be viewed by the public from the glassed Richdale Albatross Observatory, opened in 1983. Thirty-three eggs have been laid this (2013/14) season.  The first egg is now starting to pip.  The rangers have recorded 102 individually marked albatrosses so far this season, with seven colour-banded adolescents aged between five and seven years of age returning to the breeding locality for the first time.

A Northern Royal Albatross family at Taiaroa Head

Photograph by Junichi Sugushita

Thirty-six pairs bred in 2012/13 with an upward trend since 1939 (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 14 January 2014

The Short-tailed Albatross Phoebastria albatrus pair breeding on Midway Atoll’s Eastern Island for the third time successfully hatched its egg on 9 January (click here).

“A year ago last fall, the male returned and patiently waited but the female returned too late in the season and did not lay an egg,” noted refuge biologist Pete Leary.  "We were therefore thrilled when this past fall a remote camera technician sighted the female reuniting with the patiently waiting male that appreared the week before".

“The nest site is continuously monitored by refuge staff via a remote camera controlled on nearby Sand Island,” noted refuge visitor services manager, Ann Bell.  “For the first time we [are] able to post on-line video clips of the parents caring for the chick.”

Watch a video clip of the new chick.

Midway's male Short-tailed Albatross incubating behind two model birds in November 2010

Photograph by John Klavitter

The 27 year-old male and 11 year-old female first met six years ago near their current nest site.  “This pair raised their first chick in 2011 which amazed the scientific community by successfully fledging despite large storm waves in January and the March 2011 Japanese tsunami that washed the young bird from its nest site twice before it was able to fly.”

Click here for more photos and video clips of Midway’s Short-tailed Albatrosses and here for earlier news of the 2013/14 breeding attempt.

The Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and is the western-most atoll in the USA’s Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  

 John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 January 2014

A whole-island census of Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria palpebrata was undertaken on Australia’s Macquarie Island in November 2013 with 2143 nesting pairs of this biennially-breeding species counted (click here).

A Light-mantled Sooty Albatross chick, photograph by Aleks Terauds

The ACAP Data Portal reports 1550-2700 pairs in 2010/11 for this ACAP-listed and Near Threatened species on Macquarie (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 January 2014