Tristan albatross
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Family
Genus
SPECIES
Diomedea dabbenena

The Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena ) is a large seabird from the albatross family. One of the great albatrosses of the genus Diomedea, it was only widely recognised as a full species in 1998.

Animal name origin

Diomedea refers to Diomedes, whose companions turned to birds.

Te

Terrestrial

Co

Congregatory

So

Social

Mi

Migrating

T

starts with

Appearance

It is practically indistinguishable from the wandering albatross at sea; the Tristan albatross is smaller and has a slightly darker back. The Tristan albatross is 110 cm (43 in) and has a wingspan of up to 3.05 m (10.0 ft). The Tristan albatross also never attains the full white plumage of the wandering albatross, and its bill is about 25 mm (0.98 in) shorter.

Distribution

Geography

Due to the difficulty in distinguishing them from wandering albatrosses, their distribution at sea is still not fully known, but the use of satellite tracking has shown that they forage widely in the South Atlantic, with males foraging west of the breeding islands towards South America and females to the east towards Africa. There have been sightings near Brazil and also off the coast of Australia.

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Tristan albatrosses are endemic to the islands of the Tristan da Cunha group and more specifically Gough Island. The majority of the world's population nest on Gough Island, around 1500 pairs. On some years a pair breeds on Inaccessible Island.

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Habits and Lifestyle

The Tristan albatross feeds on fish and cephalopods.

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They breed biennially and will nest in wet heath from 400 to 700 m (1,300–2,300 ft) in elevation. They are monogamous, and do not start breeding until they are about 10 years old.

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Seasonal behavior
Bird's call

Mating Habits

Population

Conservation

They were formerly threatened by introduced species, rats, cats and pigs, but these have now been removed from their breeding islands. However, this resulted in the population of mice, Mus musculus, increasing to the point where they would eat and kill albatross chicks en masse. Even though the chicks are huge compared to the mice, they do not know how to defend themselves appropriately. Today the main threat to the species is believed to be long-line fishing and these mice. Recent counts suggest that the population on Gough has decreased by 28% over 46 years, whereas population modelling predicts annual decline rates of 2.9–5.3%. More recent modelling, conducted over three generations since 1980, suggests a decline equivalent to a >96% reduction in population size over three generations, since declines began. The rate of decline is therefore placed here in the band of 80–100% over three generations (86 years).

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Formerly classified as an endangered species by the IUCN, it was suspected to be more threatened than generally assumed and undergoing a marked decline. Following the evaluation of its status, this was found to be correct, and the Tristan albatross was consequently uplisted to Critically Endangered status in 2008. They have an occurrence range of 14,000,000 km2 (5,400,000 sq mi) and a breeding range of 80 km2 (31 sq mi).

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Coloring Pages

References

1. Tristan albatross Wikipedia article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_albatross
2. Tristan albatross on The IUCN Red List site - https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22728364/132657527
3. Xeno-canto bird call - https://xeno-canto.org/325540

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