Albatross populations are declining due to invasive mouse species
New research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, shows long-lived species may suffer greater impacts from predation than was previously thought.
New research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, shows long-lived species may suffer greater impacts from predation than was previously thought.
Plants & Animals
Jun 20, 2022
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A new study shows how small seabirds have mastered the art of working smarter, not harder, when soaring at sea.
Plants & Animals
Jun 01, 2022
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In a recent study published in Current Biology, a collaboration between researchers from Oxford University, University of Lisbon and the British Geological Survey found that black-browed albatross dive deeper than previously ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 20, 2022
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A novel analysis of encounters between albatross and commercial fishing vessels across the North Pacific Ocean is giving researchers important new understanding about seabird-vessel interactions that could help reduce harmful ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2021
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For the magnificent but maligned albatross, it was time for a little payback after centuries of insult and injury.
Ecology
Jan 27, 2020
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In the 1990s, the endangered status of the short-tailed albatross catalyzed efforts to reduce the number of birds accidentally killed as bycatch in Alaska, home to the country's biggest fisheries. Marine fisheries scientist ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 21, 2019
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Ecologists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) studied a population of black-browed albatross at Kerguelen Island, part of the French Southern ...
Ecology
Jun 18, 2018
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A study that used DNA tests to analyse the scats of one of the world's most numerous albatrosses has revealed surprising results about the top predator's diet.
Ecology
Oct 18, 2017
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The albatross is one of the most efficient travelers in the animal world. One species, the wandering albatross, can fly nearly 500 miles in a single day, with just an occasional flap of its wings. The birds use their formidable ...
Engineering
Oct 11, 2017
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Specially built mudbrick and aerated concrete artificial nests, airlifted on to Bass Strait's Albatross Island in a trial program aimed at increasing the breeding success of the Tasmanian Shy Albatross, appear to have been ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 09, 2017
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Diomedea Thalassarche Phoebastria Phoebetria
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains show they once occurred there too and occasional vagrants are found.
Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, and the great albatrosses (genus Diomedea) have the largest wingspans of any extant birds. The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera, but there is disagreement over the number of species.
Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid, fish and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing or diving. Albatrosses are colonial, nesting for the most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of 'ritualised dances', and will last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt.
Of the 21 species of albatrosses recognised by the IUCN, 19 are threatened with extinction. Numbers of albatrosses have declined in the past due to harvesting for feathers, but today the albatrosses are threatened by introduced species such as rats and feral cats that attack eggs, chicks and nesting adults; by pollution; by a serious decline in fish stocks in many regions largely due to overfishing; and by long-line fishing. Long-line fisheries pose the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait, become hooked on the lines, and drown. Identified stakeholders such as governments, conservation organisations and people in the fishing industry are all working toward reducing this bycatch.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA