A juvenile Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) on land at the Crozet Islands

• Published in: Polar Biology
• Main Authors: Bond, Alexander, Taylor, Christopher, Kinchin-Smith, David, Fox, Derren, Witcutt, Emma, Ryan, Peter, Loader, Simon, Weimerskirch, Henri
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Crozet islands; Dispersal; Gough island; Prospecting; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Tristan; Gough; Inaccessible Island; Crozet Islands; Polar Biology; South Atlantic Ocean; Wandering Albatross
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03165162; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02786-0

International audience Albatrosses and other seabirds are generally highly philopatric, returning to natal colonies when they achieve breeding age. This is not universal, however, and cases of extraordinary vagrancy are rare. The Tristan Albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) breeds on Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, with a small population on Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha, ca 380 km away. In 2015, we observed an adult male albatross in Gonydale, Gough Island, which had been ringed on Ile de la Possession, Crozet Islands in 2009 when it was assumed to be an immature Wandering Albatross (D. exulans). We sequenced 1109 bp of the cytochrome b mitochondrial gene from this bird, and confirmed it to be a Tristan Albatross, meaning its presence on Crozet 6 years previous, and nearly 5000 km away, was a case of prospecting behaviour in a heterospecific colony. Given the challenges in identifying immature Diomedea albatrosses, such dispersal events may be more common than thought previously.