Rare albatross guardians keep watch by each wingbeat

On New Zealand’s remote and wind-whipped Antipodes Island, Dr Jamie Darby spent the summer tagging Antipodean albatross, recording their behaviour in unprecedented detail.

The majestic native birds, which can glide over a thousand kilometres in a day, venturing as far as South America, grow rarer by the year. Population modelling in 2021 classified the Antipodean albatross as 'critically endangered,' at risk of imminent extinction. The estimated 3200 breeding pairs are expected to decline to just 400 by 2050.

The tagging data will inform efforts to further mitigate the birds' fatal entanglements with fishing boats’ hooks and lines, a key cause of their precipitous decline.

Although the Government strengthened protections for seabirds in commercial surface longline fisheries in 2023, key questions remain about how, when and where Antipodean albatross interact with boats.

"We need to better understand how they behave to ensure we can make changes that will give them a better chance at survival." says Darby.

A visiting University of Auckland researcher, Darby based at University College Cork in Ireland, spent six weeks on the remote island, 860km southeast of mainland New Zealand.

Wrapped in cloud, fog and rain and lashed by the westerly gales of the Roaring Forties, the volcanic island is a tiny part of New Zealand territory in the Southern Ocean.

In the past the island was a seasonal camp for sealers and refuge for castaways. A depot, built in 1886 as a temporary shelter with supplies for shipwreck survivors, stands alongside the Department of Conservation hut where Darby and DOC researchers stayed.

Curious albatross: James Darby also checked the muddy burrows of white-chinned petrels. In this instance, observed by an albatross. Credit:Kalinka Rexer-Huber

Antipodean albatross pair preening each other, a common way of showing affection to their partner.

Sitting outside the Antipodes Island hut

Mostly tussock-covered, with sheer cliffs, Antipodes Island is off limits to the public, a wonderland of flora and fauna from the erect-crested penguin and seals to colourful “megaherbs” and the all-green Antipodes Island parakeet.

The earth is riddled with seabird burrows. Stepping onto the island after a challenging three-day sea voyage from New Zealand aboard the 25m steel yacht Evohe, Darby made his way through seals and penguins to eventually come face to pink beak with the Antipodean albatross.

Roughly 3,000 albatross couples are on the island each summer. Partners for life, the birds breed every second year.
The albatross are strong, tender towards one another, and move with an unusual gait on land, shuffling along, the head down and swinging from side to side, then stopping, the head popping up like a periscope to look around, says Darby. "One or two will be curious and walk up to you to see what you're doing."

The tagging, carried out alongside an annual survey of the Antipodean albatross population, needed two people and some care to avoid damaging eggs, researchers, or the burrows of other seabirds.

One researcher kept the giant wings folded in while the other applied the tag to the bird’s back. They moved quickly, typically taking about seven minutes, to limit the bird's stress.
"We were tip toeing around on very uneven ground." says Darby. "It's extremely fragile, there are hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of seabirds that nest in underground burrows."

The tags provide a level of detail beyond satellite tracking, something more like the information provided by a smart watch. "We can see when a bird is flying or resting, foraging or scavenging, on land or on the water, and a radar detector shows proximity to boats," says Darby. "We can really track wingbeat by wingbeat."

Like all albatross, the Antipodean branch is a masterpiece of energy efficiency, equipped with a 3m wingspan, gliding without flappings its wings. Epic sea journeys are possible because the bird is a natural desalination machine, drinking seawater, then excreting the salt out of its beak.

Climate change is disrupting the birds' feeding, sending them further north, females travelling the furthest. Generally smaller than males, the females can glide on winds too weak for males and end up in more hazardous feeding zones. "Because of this the female population has dropped faster than the males, and the imbalance makes the situation more grave than the raw numbers suggest," says Darby.

Albatross chick taking off on a practice flight. They learn to fly at the colony, taking several practice flights over land, before finally departing and spending the subsequent years totally at sea.

Albatross chick taking off on a practice flight. They learn to fly at the colony, taking several practice flights over land, before finally departing and spending the subsequent years totally at sea.

"We can track wingbeat by wingbeat."

James Darby, seabird researcher, University of Auckland

Jamie Darby's project was a collaboration with the Department of Conserviation and supported by the University of Auckland Foundation, WWF New Zealand and the School of Biological Science at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.

The Challenge is a continuing series from the University of Auckland about researchers helping to tackle some of the world's biggest challenges. To republish this article, please contact: gilbert.wong@auckland.ac.nz