Procellariidae

Albatrosses: Diomedeidae


Great Albatrosses

Genus Diomedea

Six species listed here.

  • Snowy or Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans, Crozet, Kerguelen, Macquarie Is., Heard, Marion I., S. Georgia.
  • New Zealand Albatross Diomedea antipodensis, (formerly exulans) two subspecies:
  •   Antipodian Albatross Diomedea a. antipodensis, Antipodes Is. 
  •   Gibson’s or Auckland Wandering Albatross Diomedea a. gibsoni. Auckland Is. off New Zealand 
  • Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, Amsterdam I. (formerly exulans)
  • Tristan or Gough Albatross Diomedea dabbenena,Tristan da Cunha and Gough Is. (formerly exulans)
  • Northern Royal Albatross Diomedea sanfordi, New Zealand and Chatham Is.
  • Southern Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora, Auckland and Campbell Is.

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    Evolution and taxonomy

    Distribution
    The Great Albatrosses are all birds of the Southern Hemisphere. They breed on several islands in the southern part of all three major oceans and wander around outside the breeding season and when immature. Nevertheless some species have a more or less restricted area. The Tristan Albatross is confined mainly to the South Atlantic. Both races of the New Zealand or Antipodian/Gibson's Albatross hardly move outside the southern Indian Ocean, as does the Amsterdam Albatross in an even more restricted range around its breeding island. Both Royals and the Snowy Albatross wander around the globe.

    Behaviour
    All Diomedea species are majestic 'sail planes', very much adapted to a life on the open oceans. They are heavy birds (8+ kg) with long and narrow wings and a high wing loading. The aspect ratio of the wings is about 15.3. Their anatomy is designed for dynamic soaring on stiff outstretched wings, using the strong winds and updrafts to cover great distances at low cost of energy. The flight muscles are small and primarely suited for static forces, rather than active wing movements like the smaller tubenoses. Flight muscles take only about 6% of the total weight of the bird (in the 'average' bird about 16%). Foraging takes place mostly by surface feeding. Wandering Albatrosses seldom dive and if they do less than half a metre. Despite their pelagic life Great Albatrosses are resonably good walkers, unlike most other tubenoses which are capable only to shuffling or a short wing assisted run.
     
    Snowy or Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans  (chionoptera), Collected by a German whaler, 1907
    Culmen: 168.5 mm; total: 264 mm, unsexed adult.
    Tr istan Albatross Diomedea dabbenena, 1)
    Culmen: 150.8; total: 231 mm, unsexed adult. Courtesey of G. v.d. Brink
    Southern Royal Albatross Diomedea epomophora. Culmen: 190 mm, total: ca. 305 mm,
     Adult male. The Snares, NZ. Courtesey of B. Zonfrillo, Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland

    Northern Pacific Albatrosses

    Genus Phoebastria

    Four species:

    Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata. 1)
    Culmen: ca. 150 mm (ramphotheca abraded), Total: 233.3 mm,
    unsexed adult, Location unknown. Courtesey of G. v.d. Brink
    Black-footed Albatross Phoebastria nigripes, California USA. 3)
    Culmen: 97.5 mm; total: 164.4 mm. Adult female.
    Courtesey of H. Nevins, Oikonos & J.A. v. Franeker, Imares, Netherlands
    © Eric Preston
    Black-footed Albatross, Phoebastria nigripes,
    West of San Fransisco, California, USA     		 © Eric Preston                          
    Laysan Albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis,
    West of Fort Bragg, California, USA

     

    Evolution and taxonomy

    Distribution
    As the name of the groups says: all species occur are from the northern part of the Pacific. Only the Waved Albatross breeds on the Equator and disperses a in a restricted range a little into the Southern Hemisphere off Ecuador and Peru. The other three species are exclusively North-Pacific. They breed on several islands of the Hawaiian Chain (Laysan and Black-footed) and along the Tropic of Cancer from Mexico to the Bonin Islands (Laysan) and in the Japan area (Short-tailed and Black-footed). Non-breeding Laysan, Black-footed and Short-tailed disperse to the north and reach the Bering Strait.

    Behaviour
    The Phoebastria species are 'small' abatrosses (3-5 kg). What counts for the Great Albatrosses counts also for the smaller species: perfectly adapted to a gliding flight and dynamic soaring. Nevertheless they are better equipped for a flapping flight, which is expressed by the proportional weight of the flight musculature (ca 9%), smaller wing loading and lower aspect ratio (ca 13.8). Feeding is mainly done by surface picking and the walking and standing is relatively well developed.

    Osteology
     

    Literature
  • Brooke, M., 2004, Albatrosses and Petrels across the World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
  • Burg, T.M. & Croxall, P, 2004, Global population structure and taxonomy of the wandering albatross species complex, Molecular Ecology 13, 2345-2355, Blackwell Publishing Ltd
  • Dénes, F.V. & Silveira, L.B. 2007, Cranial Osteology and taxonomy of albatrosses of genus Diomedea Linnaeus, 1758 and Thalassarche Reichenbach 1853 (Procellariformes: Diomedeidae), Pap. Avulsos Zool., Vol. 47 no. 3. Sao Paulo
  • De Roy, T; Jones M.; Fitter, J., 2008, Albatross: their world, their ways. Firefly Books Ltd, Richmond Hill, Ont. Canada
  • Dubois, P., Janre, P. & Jouventin, P., 2005, Ten polymorphic microsatelite markers in the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, Molecular Ecology Notes, Blackwell Publishing
  • Fisher, M.L., 1970, The Albatross of Midway Island, Southern Illinois Univ. Press, Carbondale, USA
  • Jameson, W, 1958, The Wandering Albatross Rev. Ed., Doubleday & Co., Inc., New York, USA
  • Murphy, R.C, 1936, Oceanic Birds of South America, Macmillan Comp. & Am. Mus. of Nat. Hist., New York
  • Nunn, G.B.; Cooper, J.;Jouventin, P.; Robertson, C.J.R. & Robertson, G.G. 1996. Evolutionary relationships among extant albatrosses (Procellariformes Diomedeidae) established from complete cytochrome-b gene sequences. The Auk, 113:784-801
  • Penhallurick J. & Wink M., 2004, Analysis of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Procellariiformes based om complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene, Emu, 2004, 104; 125-147.
  • Prince, P.A., Huin N., Weimerskirch H., 1994, Diving depths of Albatrosses, Antarctic Science 6:3:353-354 Cambridge University Press
  • Rheindt, F.E. & Austin, J.J. 2005. Major and conceptual shortcomimgs in a recent taxonomic revision of the Procellariiformes - A reply to Penhallurick & Wink 2004, Emu, 105; 181-186.
  • Robertson, C.J.R & Nunn, G.B. 1998 Towards a new taxonomy for the albatrosses. In Robertson, G. & Gales, R. (eds), Albatross Biology and Conservation Surrey Beatty & Sons, Chipping norton, NSW, Australia, 13-19. 
  • Tickell, W.L.N., 2000, Albatrosses, Pica Press, Sussex, UK
  • Warham, J., 1990, The Petrels, their Ecology and Breeding Systems, Academic Press, London, UK
     

    Photos
    skulls: E. Soldaat

     

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