Translocation and hand-rearing of the short-tailed albatross Phoebastria

Published source details Deguchi T., Suryan R.M., Ozaki K., Jacobs J.F., Sato F., Nakamura N. & Balogh G.R. (2014) Translocation and hand-rearing of the short-tailed albatross Phoebastria. Oryx, 48, 195-203.
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Summary

Translocate birds to (re-)establish populations or increase genetic variation

A site-comparison study in 2008–2012 on Mukojima and Torishima Islands, southern Japan (Deguchi et al. 2014) reported that 99% of translocated short-tailed albatross Phoebastria albatrus chicks fledged, that these performed similarly or better than naturally reared chicks, and that adult albatrosses began to visit the translocation site. Over five years, 70 albatross chicks (30–40 days old) were translocated 350 km from Torishima to Mukojima, where the species historically bred. They were hand-fed a near-natural diet every 1–3 days until just before fledging. Sixty-nine chicks fledged, including 100% in four of five years. Compared to naturally reared fledglings on Torishima, the hand-reared fledglings were slightly heavier (hand-reared: 4.9 kg; natural: 4.2 kg) and had longer wings (hand-reared: 540 mm; natural: 502 mm). They also had similar or better overall health based on blood chemistry analyses (see original paper for data). Both groups of fledglings had similar survival to sustained flight at sea (hand-reared: 87%; natural: 84%). Adult albatross visits to the translocation site increased over time, from ≤4 days/month and 1–2 individuals/day in 2009 to 9–25 days/month and 1–6 individuals/day in 2012 (statistical significance not assessed). Visits were recorded in February–May. They included both hand-reared and naturally reared birds. This study monitored the same translocation effort as (Deguchi et al. 2017).