Toroa, the Albatross

Click on the picture to 
hear the Royal Albatros

This last storm has brought a number of casualties here, the raging seas dumping "wrecks" of sea birds on the beaches together with logs and debris from the flooded rivers.

The local bird rescuers have been very busy as people bring in birds they have found along the shores, something which has given me the opportunity to observe at close quarters  three of the great birds of the Southern Ocean, a wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans, a shy mollymawk, Diomedea cauta, and a giant petrel.

Sitting around waiting to be fed and gathering strength, they seem quite content and unperturbed by our presence. They are not injured in any way, just exhausted from struggling with the extreme weather conditions. They will need some help to get up and underway again, back into their natural element, flying about the great Southern Ocean.

Most ornithologists divide the albatrosses into three groups. The first group contains the largest of all flying birds, Toroa, the wandering and royal albatrosses, which are of about equal size and easily recognised by their white backs and tails. It is to this group for which the term "albatross", as generally understood, is reserved.

The second group includes those albatrosses generally referred to as mollymawks. They are smaller than the great albatrosses and easily distinguished from them by the dark back, wings and tails and usually more colourful bill. The sooty albatrosses make up the third group and are smaller again.

The shy is the largest of the mollymawks and is so named for it was seldom seen following ships. The origin of the word mollymawk is obscure but may be derived from mallemuk, the Dutch or Danish word for "stupid gull" which probably arises their lack of proper fear of humans and by their clumsiness as they walk.

Everyone comments on just how awesome and beautiful is the flight of the albatross but to see them grounded is an equally marvellous experience for they have the most remarkable eyes. The eyes of the shy mollymawk are especially beautiful, so large, gentle and intelligent and hooded by a wash of what is best described as dark mascara.  All the albatrosses are credited with powerful eyesight needed to find food tossing and turning on a rough sea. One wonders if their wonderful eyes may have led to some of the superstition about them for the eyes seem almost human.

The other characteristic of these birds which can readily been seen close up is the prominent tubed nostrils. In its long flights around the Southern Ocean, very often not being near land for days and even weeks,  the bird requires freshwater so it distils its own and discharges the excess salt from its system through its nostrils.

Albatrosses are among the most long-lived of birds and commonly reach the age of 30-40 years, with a record going to a Royal from the colony at Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, a bird named Grandma who was still producing young past her sixtieth birthday. The albatross is also characterised by its affectionate behaviour towards its mate and its relative tameness, not fearing the approach of humans as most birds do.

Using the wind, albatrosses can achieve continuous flight without beating their wings. This is known as dynamic soaring.  The pattern begins with a dive with the wind behind, a swoop low over the waves and a turn and climb into the wind to attain original height. Dynamic soaring works best in what is called a "good blow". Albatrosses are able to maintain course in a moderate wind but make leeway when wind speeds exceeds 70kmp.

The sailing ships used to encounter albatrosses while plying the westerly winds between latitudes 40 and 60 degrees, thus the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties came to be known as the albatross latitudes. At times they were hooked on fishing lines or shot with a cross bow or guns. One of James Cook's expeditions records the capture of albatrosses which ended up on the table. Ashore sealers and whalers evidently took eggs and even the birds themselves for food. The use of the skins for feather rugs may have produced an early nickname "cape sheep". Their webbed feet were converted into tobacco pouches, their bones into pipe stems, breast feathers into muffs and their beaks into paper clips.

The flesh was considered a great delicacy to Maori who preserved it the same way as mutton birds. From the bones they  carved spear tips, nose flutes and other artifacts. The secretions from the birds tubular nostrils were the "tears" of the albatross, weeping for its distant home, a motif often used in carving.

The albatross feeds mostly on squid, octopus, salps and fish, a proportion of which is carrion.  This scavenging behaviour in the wake of fishing vessels is leading them to becoming a threatened species.  It has been calculated that 44,000 albatrosses die each year in the course of taking bait from long lines sometimes set by fishing vessels as long as 100 kilometres. The fishing companies operating in southern waters are being asked by Australia and New Zealand fisheries agencies to adopt techniques that will limit the horrendous by-catch but still the slaughter continues. It is discouraging to think that these two birds which people have gone to so much trouble to save may be drowned on a long line once they have been released.

When the time comes to return these great birds to their proper element, the local Department of Conservation officers will either have to take them out to sea or to some a cliff where they can be encouraged to take off. To take off from the sea the albatross runs on its huge webbed feet until it gains sufficient momentum to lift off.  On land it will need some sloping ground on a cliff where it can, facing the wind and running to gain impetus, rise into the air.