Susan M. Waugh

BirdLife International

Diet and trophic relationships of New Zealand albatrosses are poorly known, while comprehensive information on their feeding ecology are needed in an ecological and evolutionary context, but also for effective conservation management. Here, food samples of the sympatric Campbell albatross Thalassarche impavida and grey-headed albatross T. chrysosto...

Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds, particularly petrels, frequently ingest plastic, are h...

Animal tracking has afforded insights into patterns of space use in numerous species and thereby informed area-based conservation planning. A crucial consideration when estimating spatial distributions from tracking data is whether the sample of tracked animals is representative of the wider population. However, it may also be important to track an...

The New Zealand huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) had the most extreme bill sexual dimorphism among modern birds. Given the quick extinction of the species, the cause of the dimorphism could only be hypothesised to reflect different trophic niches and reduce male/female competition. We tested that hypothesis by combining museum specimens, geometric m...

Migratory marine species cross political borders and enter the high seas, where the lack of an effective global management framework for biodiversity leaves them vulnerable to threats. Here, we combine 10,108 tracks from 5775 individual birds at 87 sites with data on breeding population sizes to estimate the relative year-round importance of nation...

Most Procellariform seabirds are pelagic, breed in summer when prey availability peaks, and migrate for winter. They also display a dual foraging strategy (short and long trips) and sex-specific foraging. The Westland petrel Procellaria westlandica, a New Zealand endemic, is one of the rare seabirds breeding in winter. Preliminary findings on this...

Migratory seabirds experience varying levels of both protection and threats as they travel across marine regions and countries’ jurisdictions. Studying their seasonal distribution provides insights into the full range of exploited habitats and potential gaps in conservation policy existing in the visited areas. Here we used light-based geolocation...

The identification of geographic areas where the densities of animals are highest across their annual cycles is a crucial step in conservation planning. In marine environments, however, it can be particularly difficult to map the distribution of species, and the methods used are usually biased towards adults, neglecting the distribution of other li...

Callaeidae (wattlebirds) and Notiomystidae (stitchbirds) are New Zealand-endemic sister-taxa; while widespread before human settlement, they subsequently became critically endangered or extinct. Aside from presently managed populations, information about them is scarce and actual specimens even scarcer. Herein, we provide a snapshot of these famili...

Little penguins (Eudyptula minor) occur around most of New Zealand but the only systematic regional surveys have been carried out in Otago (1991-92, 2013) and Banks Peninsula (2000-02). This is the first national effort to map the location of their colonies and attempt to estimate penguin numbers. Little penguins are not evenly distributed around N...

New Zealand is a global centre of diversity for gadfly petrels (family Procellariidae, genus Pterodroma). The 11 extant breeding species include six endemic species (grey-faced petrel Pt. gouldi, Chatham Island täiko/Magenta petrel Pt. magentae, mottled petrel Pt. inexpectata, Chatham petrel Pt. axillaris, Cook's petrel Pt. cookii and Pycroft's pet...

Determining the effects of oil spills on wildlife can be difficult. The collection and publication of data on wildlife impacts and mortalities from oil spills are vital steps to help understand overall effects. However, the way wildlife are collected and processed affects the results and how information can be used. Information for threatened and e...

Assessing the bycatch of seabirds is a key step in understanding the impact of fishing on their populations. In this analysis, we used the seabird risk assessment methodology that was developed in New Zealand to estimate the bycatch of 26 albatross and petrel taxa that breed in the Southern Hemisphere. The bycatch estimates were related to populati...

Breeding in most species is timed to coincide with the greatest availability of food resources to support the increased energetic needs of reproduction. Correspondingly, the majority (76%) of seabird species in temperate and polar regions breed in spring/summer, matching the peak in ocean productivity. The Fiordland penguin Eudyptes pachyrhynchus i...

New Zealand’s National Systematics and Taxonomic Collections Working Group (WG) represents the agencies who hold taxonomic biological collections of organisms across New Zealand, at least 22 agencies and Mãtauranga Maori representatives. The group was instituted in 2017 with 8 representatives from across these institutions to : Enhance collaboratio...

Environmental and anthropogenic influences in the marine environment are primary drivers of behavior and demographic outcomes for marine birds. We examined factors influencing the foraging patterns of the Westland Petrel (Procellaria westlandica), a highly threatened, endemic petrel that inhabits subtropical water masses primarily in the Tasman Sea...

An image of the XGPS microstriped antenna (Appendix S1), a finite‐element conceptualization of the XGPS XYZ radiation pattern (Appendix S2), the distribution of radar detections recorded (Appendix S3), and the intensity of the radar signal recorded (Appendix S4) are available online. The authors are solely responsible for the content and functional...

Despite international waters covering over 60% of the world's oceans, our understanding of how fisheries in these regions shape ecosystem processes is surprisingly poor. Seabirds are known to forage at fishing vessels, with potential deleterious effects for their population, but the extent of overlap and behavior in relation to ships are poorly kno...

Albatrosses are flexible and adaptable predators, relying on live prey as well as carrion. Use of predictable food sources and reliance on human-produced resources are well-known trait in long-range feeders like albatrosses and petrels. Breeding Buller’s albatrosses studied at Solander I. (Hautere), New Zealand fed their chicks the remains of sooty...

Times spent by a three adult breeding Buller’s albatross during chick-rearing stage. Bouts of time in proximity muttonbirding sites (shaded) and within the shelf-break area (unshaded) during a 9.6 d trip on 11–19 May 2016 for bird M83587, a 4 day trip by bird M84344 (data from Day 4 only shown) and a 10 day trip for Bird M48065 (data from Day 10 on...

The little penguin Eudyptula minor is primarily an inshore forager with its range generally limited to c. 30 km of breeding sites during the nesting period. However, exceptions with greater foraging distances have been recorded in Australia. To investigate the foraging range plasticity in New Zealand we used GPS tracks gathered on 68 individuals in...

Threat status assessments provide a benchmark for identifying priorities for conservation and related research for special-status species. We review data about an endemic New Zealand seabird, the Westland Petrel Procellaria westlandica, and provide information to assist future threat assessment reviews. A range of threats have potential or have alr...

Although the flesh-footed shearwater Puffinus carneipes is a species with large population sizes (tens of thousands of breeding pairs) and widespread sub-tropical distribution across Australasian water masses, it is among the species most threatened by longline fisheries mortality in this region. While bycatch mitigation measures have been very suc...

The use of long-term ecological datasets to explore the importance of the effects of environmental variability on higher predator populations has been focused mainly on high-latitude areas. We modeled the population dynamics of the Westland Petrel (Procellaria westlandica), which spends its time mostly in subtropical waters during both breeding and...

Flesh-footed shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) are considered to be one of New Zealand’s seabird species that is most heavily impacted by both commercial and recreational fisheries, yet they have an IUCN ranking of “Least Concern”. To resolve this contradiction we conducted surveys on 3 large breeding colonies and compared our results to historical...

The Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes is a widespread sub-tropical species, breeding on Southern Hemisphere islands managed by New Zealand, Australia and France. Recent concern over the population’s stability and frequently noted bycatch in longline fisheries has prompted a review of its conservation status. Studies of nesting shearwaters...

Many marine species are threatened by high levels of incidental mortality in fisheries. This paper reviews the design of selected recent, detailed Ecological Risk Assessments (ERAs) of the effects of fishing on seabirds. Several aspects of ERA methodology for seabirds are still in development, including the most appropriate ways to: predict seabird...

We conducted counts of spoted shags (Stictocarbo punctatus) at Matiu/Somes and Mokopuna islands in Wellington Harbour quarterly during the period from 2002-05 and sporadically at these sites and at Makaro/Ward Island during 2007-12. This population is important as it is one of the few North Island breeding areas, and one of only 2 in the Wellington...

The risk of seabird–fishery interactions in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) was examined by analysing the overlap of seabird distributions with tuna and swordfish pelagic longline fisheries managed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and its constituent members. The study used spatially-explicit Productivity...

www.cms.int/sites/default/files/document/inf_30_gillnet_bycatch_e_0.pdf

Foraging zones used by incubating royal albatrosses (Diomedea epomophora) from the Otago Peninsula and their coincidence with fisheries activities were studied with global positioning system (GPS) loggers. Birds favoured areas around the shelf break of the eastern New Zealand continental mass, with hot spots of activity that coincided with fishing...

Telemetry methods and remote sensing now make it possible to record the spatial usage of wide-ranging marine animals and the biophysical characteristics of their pelagic habitats. Furthermore, recent statistical advances mean such data can be used to test ecological hypotheses and estimate species' distributions. Black-browed albatrosses Thalassarc...

Seabird bycatch in trawl fisheries is driven by the attraction of birds to foraging opportunities, i.e., the discharge of catch processing waste and the contents of trawl nets. The risk of seabird captures increases with seabird abundance and exposure to fishing gear. We investigated (1) how quickly seabirds responded to discharges of trawl catch p...

Southern Royal Albatrosses (Diomedea epomophora) were satellite-tracked from Campbell Island during the incubation period in 1997 and 1999. Their foraging activity was restricted to shelf and shelf-break areas within 1250 km of their breeding site. Foraging activity by 8 of the 14 individuals tracked was concentrated at a zone near the Snares Islan...

The provisioning strategies of two closely related species of albatross breeding sympatrically were studied at Campbell Island, New Zealand. Black-browed Albatrosses (Diomedea melanophrys) had a higher provisioning rate of chicks than Grey-headed Albatrosses (D. chrysostoma) as a result of a higher feeding frequency. Provisioning and satellite-trac...

The numbers of Black-browed Albatrosses Diomedea melanophrys and Grey-headed Albatrosses D. chrysostoma at Campbell Island, New Zealand, have declined dramatically since the 1940s. Black-browed Albatross numbers went into a steep decline in the 1970s and, since at least 1984, have been increasing slightly at average rates of 1.1% and 2.1% per annum...

We describe the process used in the fisheries management system of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to minimise seabird bycatch, and the risk-assessment methodology developed to assist this. We examine the progress of several Regional Fishery Management Organisations in taking steps to address seabir...

Fisheries bycatch is a threatening process for populations of procellariiform seabirds, and is of particular importance for the conservation of albatross, an especially threatened group at a global scale. There is a high level of endemism of albatross and petrels in New Zealand waters, and around one-third of the world's species of procellariiform...

We studied the Westland Petrel (Procellaria westlandica) over 9 years to estimate demographic rates and examine the possible influence of fisheries by-catch and nest predators on the population. Mean annual survival rates of breeders and skipped-breeders averaged 0.965 (s.e. = 0.038) and 0.726 (s.e. = 0.173) respectively. Mean fledging success was...

The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is a newly-constituted international treaty that as yet may be little known to marine ornithologists around the world. We outline the rationale for the existence of the Agreement, the history of its development, the progress it has achieved to date and its future plans. It is hoped...

Habitat selection in heterogeneous environments is assumed to allow diversification. Wide-ranging species like pelagic seabirds present a paradox, in that their diversity appears difficult to reconcile with a frequent lack of geographical isolation between populations. We studied the foraging strategies of three closely related species of greater a...

The Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica) is endemic to New Zealand, and nests within a restricted area of the West Coast of the South Is. Surveys of burrow occupancy rate in 2 colonies in 2001 using burrow-scopes showed an average of 21% of burrows contained a chick or egg. The rate was c. 50% of that recorded for other burrowing seabirds and...

Southern Royal Albatrosses (Diomedea epomophora) were satellite-tracked from Campbell Island during the incubation period in 1997 and 1999. Their foraging activity was restricted to shelf and shelf-break areas within 1250 km of their breeding site. Foraging activity by 8 of the 14 individuals tracked was concentrated at a zone near the Snares Islan...

The provisioning strategies of two closely related species of albatross breeding sympatrically were studied at Campbell Island, New Zealand. Black-browed Albatrosses (Diomedea melanophrys) had a higher provisioning rate of chicks than Grey-headed Albatrosses (D. chrysostoma) as a result of a higher feeding frequency. Provisioning and satellite-trac...

Dietary samples collected at Campbell Island in summer 1997 indicate that southern blue whiting (Micromesistius australis) formed the bulk of the food of black‐browed albatrosses (Diomedea melanophrys impavida) during the chick‐rearing period. Birds preyed upon a single size class of fish with a mode at 80–90 mm standard length; fish were 4–5 month...

Differences in morphometry between five populations of black-browed albatrosses (Diomedea melanophrys) and four populations of grey-headed albatrosses (D. chrysostoma) are examined. Two clear groups of black-browed albatrosses are evident, with birds from the subspecies Diomedea melanophrys impavida showing significant differences in several variab...

Albatross banded at Campbell Island, New Zealand have been recovered at a very low rate over 30 years. From 24000 New Zealand Black-browed Albatross banded, 77 birds have been recovered from beaches and vessels around the south-west Pacific Ocean. The seasonal distribution of juvenile, sub-adult, and adult New Zealand Black-browed Albatrosses are d...

The marine habitat exploited by black-browed Diomedea melanophrys and grey-headed albatrosses D. chrysostoma breeding at Campbell Island. New Zealand, was studied using satellite telemetry. Data were analysed in relation to the bathymetry and sea-surface temperature of the foraging zones. Black-browed albatrosses spent 55 % of their time on the Cam...

The foraging zones used by two species of albatross, breeding at Campbell Island, were studied by dye‐marking breeding birds in 2 years in combination with ship‐board observations of bird distribution. New Zealand black‐browed albatross, Diomedea melanophrys impavida, were found mainly over the shelf waters of the Campbell Plateau and the south‐eas...

Aspects of the breeding biology of Southern Royal Albatrosses Diomedea epomophora epomophora were studied at Campbell Island during four breeding seasons, 1964 to 1969. Laying and hatching dates for D. e. epomophora on Campbell Island were 17-22 d later than those reported for Northern Royal Albatrosses D. e. sanfordi at Taiaroa Head. Although reca...

Report prepared for the Department of Conservation, 7 May 2007 (Update 7 April, 2008).