ROYAL ALBATROSSES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 380, 4 October 1946, Page 30

ROYAL ALBATROSSES

Written for "The Listener’

by

J. H.

SORENSEN

WO large albatrosses breed on the Auckland and Campbell Islands. The Wandering Albatross is almost exclusive to the Aucklands, only a few pairs nesting in one place on the Campbells, while the Royals utilise the Campbells as their main stronghold, just a few pairs breeding on Enderby Island at the northern end of the Aucklands group. Possibly a colony of Royal Albatrosses exists on Adams Island at the south of the Aucklands, but they were not located by any of the parties stationed on that group in the war years. Mention of them is found in early records and, if they do exist tHere, must only form another small colony. It seems strange that these two species have apparently divided these two subantarctic islands between them, for there is ample room for both on either island and one meets with both birds at sea off their shores. Royal Albatrosses also breed on islands off the Chathams group and, of course, at the now famous small colony on Otago Heads. These birds, however, are a slightly different strain, being a little smaller than the Campbell Island birds and with plumage which also differs, particularly on the adult males. In popular tradition the first duty of an albatross, as of a whale, is to be huge, and wingspreads of up to 17 feet are credited in serious works on ornithology and in a standard encyclopedia. Such statements are entirely without foundation in fact and a wingspread of 17 feet fits nothing living since the extinction of the giant pterodactyls in the Mesozoic era 100,000,000 years ago! When a tape is applied it is found that about 11 feet across the outstretched wings of an albatross represents the maximum expanse of any known bird; the 12-foot albatross needs verification, the 13-footer is probably a myth. Perhaps I was unlucky but, of

all the birds I measured on the Campbells and Aucklands, the largest wingspan I recorded was only 10 feet 8 inches. Studying the Birds It is understandable that a bird such as the albatross, nesting in localities far from civilisation, should not have the full details of its life history known to many, or, indeed, to any persons for a long time. Limited opportunities occurred in the past for visits to the sub-antarctic islands and, even when they did, they could only be of short duration. And so, until the opportunity was afforded to a patient and careful observer in Otago to correct mis-statements, some now obvious errors were frequently made in regard to albatross behaviour. The wise policy of including a naturalist in each of the sub-antarctic coastwatching parties sent each year during the late war to the Auckland and Campbell Islands gave New Zealand scientists an excellent chance to do detailed work on the birds and animals of those places. They were enabled to see and record the life-cycle season by season; to check one year’s results against the next, and so amass a huge total of facts and knowledge. I was particularly fortunate in being permitted to spend more than one term on the Campbells and for almost three complete seasons made weekly visits to a colony of Royal Albatrosses, and studied the species from the courtship of the parents until the departure of of the fledgling chick. Details of albatrosss life became increasingly clear as time went by and not even the vilest of weather conditions could prevent me from making my weekly visit to the birds. In pouring rain which almost reduced my notebook to a pulp-in high

winds which threatened to bowl me over-even through snow almost waist deep, I maintained my visits regularly. I grew attached to the birds and my companions used to state cheerfully that the day would come when I would not return to the camp, and the resultant search party would find me_ broodily squatting on a nest and being offered ancient fish or squid by a mothegly albatross! At first the chicks offered no problems and, once the parents’ confidence had been obtained, were withdrawn from the nest and placed on ordinary: household scales when being weighed. Later, when the guard-period. of six weeks after hatching was over and the chicks grew heavier and stronger, a piece of sacking and a strong spring balance had to be used. Almost an Accident At this stage, too, the chicks had a will of their own and, partly to prevent them losing their dinners, but more to prevent them exercising their powerful beaks on my person, I would slip a strong rubber band round the beak. Then came the day when I nearly met with a serious accident. Whether I failed to put the band on properly; whether it slipped, or whether the chick managed to get it off, I will never know. But suddenly, whilst reading the scales, I was seized in the region of the eye by the 30-pound chick. The hook of the beak entered over the ridge of

bone below the eye, for-. tunately missing the eye itself. With tears and blood streaming down my cheek I had to prise the chick’s beak gently open, replace the chick on the nest, keep my temper, staunch the flow of blood and then continue with the job. I never failed after that to make sure the ring round the beak was securely placed and that the rubber was not perished. Although the visits for weighing and measuring were made weekly, two visits ‘a day had to be made at the time the

eggs were laid, in order to ascertain the exact half-day in which the egg of the mated pair under observation appeared. This had to be followed at a later date by vigits twice daily when the eggs were hatching. This gave me the exact incubation period, a duration of rather more than eleven weekswhich must be the longest incubation period known to birds. Knowledge Gained All birds were ringed and this kept an adequate check on the albatrosses using the area I called my "Royal colony." It

helped to solve many questions of albatross behaviour and to dispel satisfactorily some of. the erroneous conjectures of the past. For instance, it used to be claimed that the albatrosses left their chick to fast for several months and when they returned later in the year chased it off the nest before they bred again. Actually the chick is fed right to the last, the parents even being known to return and search for it after it had flown. ; The albatrosses which successfully rear a chick only nest every second

year. Should the egg be lost or the chick die at an early stage then the parénts will breed again the following year. Another claim which was proved false was that the birds return year after year to the same nest. Certainly the majority of the birds on Campbell Island returned to the same area but in no case was the old nest ever known to be used again. The return of mated pairs was eagerly looked for each season and they were greeted as old friends when they did. Would the mated pair of a certain nest turn’ up again after their year’s holiday? Had one of the birds, or both, died in the meantime? Had they chosen another locality? These. and many more questions were duly answered by intensive study. Just as the personalities of different humian beings differ,-so do those of individual albatrosses. The majority of the birds I studied became very tame; just a few never conquered their dislike of being handled, and always resisted. ; i , , Late in the year, approximately ‘nine months after hatching, the now fully fledged: chicks take off, somewhat unsteadily, to obtain their own living at sea. Many had to be rescued from crash landings in scrub or deep valleys. In such positions they are unable to take off again, and perish unless taken and liberated in the harbours.