Salvin's albatross, Bounty Islands population project

Introduction

These are the final reports for POP2017-03: Salvin's albatross, Bounty Islands population project. Published 2019.

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Summary 

These reports cover the ground based and aerial based population work of Salvin's albatross Thalassarche salvini on the Bounty Islands in 2018. This species is essentially endemic to New Zealand, breeding mainly on the Bounty Islands and the Western Chain of The Snares. Other breeding sites include The Pyramid in the Chatham Islands, where two occupied nests were reported in 1995 (Croxall and Gales 1998), and Ile des Pingouins in the Crozet archipelago (Indian Ocean) where four breeding pairs were recorded in 1986 (Jouventin 1990) but birds no longer appear to be present.

The total breeding population was estimated to be approximately 32,000 pairs in 1998 (ACAP 2009), with 98.5% of the population concentrated on the Bounty Islands (Amey and Sagar 2013). The population status of this species is poorly known. Ground based work involved deploying transmitting Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices and geolocation data loggers (Global Location Sensing (GLS) tags) on breeding birds on Proclamation Island, Bounty Islands; banding and recapturing birds in a study area; completing counts of breeding and non-breeding birds along transects at various time of the day; and deploying automated time-lapse cameras that covered part of the study area.

Aerial work involved photography of the islands via a series of parallel transects conducted via a fixed-wing aircraft modified to permit photography via two co-located port-holes installed in the foor of the aircraft. 

Publication details

Baker, B. 2019. 2018 aerial survey of Salvin's albatross at the Bounty Islands. Final report to the Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation. Latitude 42, Australia. 11 p.

Sagar, P., Charteris, M., Parker, G., Rexer-Huber, K. & Thompson, D. 2018. Salvin's albatross: Bounty Islands population project. Final report to the Conservation Services Programme, Department of Conservation, prepared by NIWA. 18 p.

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