VulnerableSouthern Royal Albatross
Diomedea epomophora
15 countries5 parks1 dive site
Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 5 species of albatross, in the family Diomedeidae.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
4 species in this group are in a threatened category according to the IUCN.
Recorded in 20 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It can glide thousands of kilometres with barely a wingbeat thanks to dynamic soaring: it exploits the difference in wind speed between the water's surface and fifteen metres up, and a tendon locks the outstretched wing without any muscular effort.
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The colony at Taiaroa Head in New Zealand is the only great albatross colony in the world on the mainland and open to the public, and it has been monitored continuously since 1938.
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It can live for several decades and pairs monogamously for life, performing elaborate synchronised courtship rituals that are repeated every breeding season.
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Its recovery is one of the best pieces of news in recent marine conservation: it went from Endangered in 2003 to Least Concern in 2013 thanks to bird-scaring lines, weighted hooks and night setting on longlines.
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An individual called Albert has been turning up every spring for more than three decades at a gannet colony in Scotland, thousands of kilometres from his own species, in search of a mate he will never find.
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It pairs monogamously for life and can cover more than 10,000 km a year without ever returning to land outside the breeding season.
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Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 5.
It eats cephalopods — squid above all — along with small fish and crustaceans taken at the surface.
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It breeds every other year rather than annually, laying a single egg.
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