Figure 1 from the paper: Map of the California Channel Islands. The continental shelf is indicated by the blue shading of the bathymetry. Inset B shows the location along the west coast of North America.

Eric VanderWerf (Pacific Rim Conservation, Hawaii, United States) and colleagues have published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science an assessment on the feasibility of the Channel Islands, located off the coast of California, as a future site for establishing breeding colonies of Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Laysan (Phoebastria immutabilis) and Black-footed Albatrosses (P. nigripes) nest primarily on low-lying atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands that are threatened by inundation from sea level rise and increasing storm surge associated with climate change. Restoration or creation of breeding colonies on higher islands is among the highest priority conservation actions for these species. A previous structured decision-making analysis identified the California Channel Islands as a possible restoration site for Black-footed Albatross. The California Current is part of the natural foraging ranges of Laysan and Black- footed albatrosses. Archaeological evidence indicates both species were present in the California Channel Islands prehistorically, yet neither currently nests in the Channel Islands. We assessed the feasibility of creating albatross breeding colonies in the Channel Islands using social attraction and translocation, and the suitability of each island. We used a risk analysis framework developed for the U.S. National Park Service to evaluate the potential ecological risks of this action. Creating an albatross colony in the Channel Islands is feasible using available methods. Santa Barbara and San Nicolas islands would be most suitable for albatross. Social attraction is less expensive and might be effective for creating a Laysan Albatross colony because that species is already visiting some islands. Translocation would be necessary to create a Black-footed Albatross colony. The risks associated with attempting to establish albatross breeding colonies in the Channel Islands were deemed to be generally low, but the risk of no action is high to these albatrosses. This can be a useful assisted colonization case study that can inform decisions by land managers and agencies regarding conservation of North Pacific albatrosses and other species.”

Reference:

VanderWerf, E.A., Holmes N.D., Morrison S.A., Kohley C.R., Wegmann A. and Young  L.C. (2024). Assisted colonization of albatrosses in the California Channel Islands: conservation basis and suitability assessment. Front. Conserv. Sci. 4:1279373. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2023.1279373

9 February 2024

The schematic illustrates the analysis approach.  The microbarom soundscape is represented by coloured contours; the bird’s track is shown from the Crozet Islands, see the paper’s Figure 1 for a full explanation

Natasha Gillies (School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom) and colleagues have published in the online journal PNAS on GPS-tracked  Vulnerable Wandering Albatrosses Diomedea exulans at sea preferentially moving toward regions of ‘loud’ infrasound.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The ways in which seabirds navigate over very large spatial scales remain poorly understood. While olfactory and visual information can provide guidance over short distances, their range is often limited to 100s km, far below the navigational capacity of wide-ranging animals such as albatrosses. Infrasound is a form of low-frequency sound that propagates for 1,000s km in the atmosphere. In marine habitats, its association with storms and ocean surface waves could in effect make it a useful cue for anticipating environmental conditions that favor or hinder flight or be associated with profitable foraging patches. However, behavioral responses of wild birds to infrasound remain untested. Here, we explored whether wandering albatrosses, Diomedea exulans, respond to microbarom infrasound at sea. We used Global Positioning System tracks of 89 free-ranging albatrosses in combination with acoustic modeling to investigate whether albatrosses preferentially orientate toward areas of ‘loud’ microbarom infrasound on their foraging trips. We found that in addition to responding to winds encountered in situ, albatrosses moved toward source regions associated with higher sound pressure levels. These findings suggest that albatrosses may be responding to long-range infrasonic cues. As albatrosses depend on winds and waves for soaring flight, infrasonic cues may help albatrosses to identify environmental conditions that allow them to energetically optimize flight over long distances. Our results shed light on one of the great unresolved mysteries in nature, navigation in seemingly featureless ocean environments.”

A  Wandering Albatross in the Drake Passage, photograph by Kirk Zufelt

Read a commentary in PNAS by Lesley Thorne here and a popular account by study co-author Samantha Patrick here.

Reference:

Gillies, N., Martín López, L.M. & Patrick, S.C. 2023.  Albatross movement suggests sensitivity to infrasound cues at sea.  PNAS doi.org/10.1073/pnas.221867912.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 08 February 2024

The 7th International Albatross and Petrel Conference is set to take place in the scenic coastal city of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, from May 20 to 26, 2024. 

This significant event will bring together experts, conservationists, and seabird enthusiasts from around the world to discuss and address the pressing issues facing these incredible seabirds.

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels’ Executive Secretary, Dr Christine Bogle is a keynote speaker at the conference, and will be reflecting on the achievements of the Agreement, and the challenges ahead, as it marks its 20^th anniversary this year.

Dr Bogle will be joined by two other keynote speakers at the conference: Nicholas Carlile, Senior Research Scientist with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment in Australia, and Joan Ferrer Obiol, Postdoctoral Associate in the University of Milan’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy.

Nicholas has over 30 years of ecological research experience in NSW, focusing on island biodiversity restoration and fauna surveys with the Department of Planning and Environment. His work includes spearheading the recovery of the Gould's petrel.

Joan specialises in ecological and evolutionary genomics, particularly in seabirds, using genomic tools to understand evolutionary history, biogeographic patterns, and conservation challenges. 

The early bird registration and abstract submission period has been extended until 15 March, and travel grants for students and early career scientists are available!

To find out more about the conference, and to register, head to the IAPC7 website, here.

7 February 2024

Buller’s Albatross, by Dutch illustrator Johannes Gerardus Keulemans, from A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Buller

The Ad Hoc English Bird Names Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) has considered the issue of eponymous names accorded to birds that may be deemed to be offensive in its recent report, deciding after clearly long and careful thought that there is no sensible way to “draw a line”.  Therefore, in what is really a radical decision, it is recommending that the over 150 North American birds bearing eponymous names should be renamed, thus neatly side stepping the issue of being moral police.

How would the AOS view apply to the 31 ACAP-listed species?  Of them all, only Buller’s Albatross Thalassarche bulleri and Salvin’s Albatross T. salvini bear primary eponymous names (note that ACAP uses the descriptive name Black Petrel for the listed Procellaria parkinsoni and not Parkinson’s Petrel).  Two other species, also New Zealand endemics, Campbell T. impavida and Chatham T. eremita Albatrosses, have what have been called secondary eponymous names, derived from localities where they breed that were named after people.  Campbell Island is named after the sealing company Robert Campbell & Co.  Robert Campbell was a merchant and politician of Sydney, Australia.  There is apparently some doubt, but it seems likely the Chatham Islands were named after the UK’s First Lord of the Admiralty, John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham.  The AOS Committee did not consider secondary eponyms of this sort to be problematic, so did not consider them further; a view I follow here.

An imposing figure: Sir Walter Lawry Buller, oil painting by Ethel Mortlock, c. 1903. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Sir Walter Lawry Buller KCMG FRS FLS (1838-1906) was born in the Bay of Islands on New Zealand’s North Island.  He became an avid collector of and dealer in New Zealand bird specimens from a young age and wrote the then definitive A History of the Birds of New Zealand, which was well received.  Two procellariiform seabirds bear his name, Buller’s Albatross and Buller's Shearwater Puffinus bulleri (Salvin, 1888).  Should these two seabirds still be named after him?

Buller was not without fault as a moral character.  Sandy Bartle and Alan Tennyson have written: “By falsely stating that he had built up three discrete collections of New Zealand birds, one for each edition of his book, Buller … was trying to establish himself primarily as a scientist and writer, rather than as a supplier of bird specimens to those who could afford them”.  Various transactions related to the sale of his several collections and inadequate and misleading labelling suggest what now might be considered “shady” practices, as Sandy and Alan describe in their very detailed publication.  But is this enough to consider his name as an eponym offensive enough for it to be no longer used?  My own view is no, but what of Buller’s views and activities in a wider sphere?

An online biography has that “Buller held the prevailing view that the native plants, birds and people of New Zealand would inevitably be displaced by the more vigorous European immigrants.  The Māori, he thought, 'are dying out and nothing can save them.  Our plain duty as good compassionate colonists, is to smooth down their dying pillow.'”  Perhaps well intentioned (he was fluent in Te Reo Maori from a young age) this sentiment would rightly be regarded as racist nowadays.  But at the time it might well have been regarded as showing laudable intentions.  Times and mores change and looking into the past through our own prism will always be fraught, so where should the line with eponyms deemed to be offensive be drawn?

Buller’s Albatross at sea, photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

As well as wishing to discard all North American eponymous bird names, the OAS Committee has singled out the name of the  Flesh-footed Shearwater Ardenna carnepeis for special opprobrium, writing that “the word flesh may imply that all - or at least “normal” - skin resembles that of white people.  To suggest that the default skin tone is that of a white person is inherently an exclusionary standard”.  The committee recommends the epithet “Pale-footed” be used instead.  This is of at least potential interest to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement because at a 2019 meeting New Zealand indicated it was considering the merit of nominating the shearwater for ACAP listing, although since then there seems to have been no further progress to develop a proposal (click here).  New Zealand Birds Online has Pale-footed Shearwater as an alternative name (along with the Maori name Toanui), so this could be seen as a relatively easy change, and one for ACAP to consider adopting.

Buller’s (top) and Salvin’s Albatross, by J.G. Keulemans

If New Zealand ever decided to follow the AOS and drop all its eponymous bird names, what might it call a renamed Buller’s Albatross (selected this year to support Wold Albatross Day on 19 June as a featured species)?  ‘Pacific Albatross’ has been applied to its northern subspecies T. bulleri platei by some who have accorded it full species status, so it could be used to refer to the species sensu lato.  Indeed, New Zealand Birds Online already has Pacific Albatross as an alternative name (along with the Māori Toroa) for the species.  In my writing texts for those ACAP Species Infographics which have been sponsored by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, ACAP willingly complied with its request to include Māori names for mapped breeding localities.  For example, the infographic for the Southern Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora has for its most important breeding site the form “Campbell Island/Motuere Ihupuku”.  With this as a precedent and in its spirit in my future writings for the ACAP website, perhaps I should refer to “Buller’s or Pacific Albatross” the first time I mention the species..

Tales from Te Papa.  Alan Tennyson and Sandy Bartle are interviewed about Walter Buller

Lastly, what of Salvin’s Albatross, named after the 19th Century ornithologist Osbert Salvin FRS FLS?  More historical literature reading would be required for a future ACAP Monthly Missive on a species that already has Bounty Island Albatross or Grey-backed Albatross (although both seem little used) as alternative names.

With thanks to Igor Debski and Johannes Fischer, New Zealand Department of Conservation and Alan Tennyson, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

References:

Bartle, J.A. & Tennyson, A.J.D. 2009.  History of Walter Buller’s collections of New Zealand birds.  Tuhinga Records of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa 20: 81-136.

Buller, W.L. 1887-1888.  A History of the Birds of New Zealand.  2nd Edition.  London: W.L. Buller.

Guedes, P., Alves-Martins, F., Arribas, J.M., Chatterjee, S., Santos, A.M.C., Lewin, A., Bako, L., Webala, P.W., Correia, R.A., Rocha, R. & Ladle, R.J. 2023.  Eponyms have no place in 21st-century biological nomenclature.  Nature Ecology & Evolution doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02022-y.

Pethiyagoda, R. 2023.  Policing the scientific lexicon: the new colonialism?  Megataxa 10: 20-25.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 06 February 2023