Above Picture: First page of the ACAP Species Summary for the Southern Giant Petrel
The two-page Species Summaries published by the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) have been produced to help inform the public, including school learners, of the biology and conservation needs of the 31 ACAP-listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters. Illustrated by both artworks and photographs, they serve to complement the more detailed and referenced ACAP Species Assessments, and the still incomplete ACAP Photo Essay and ACAP Infographic series.
The 22 albatross summaries were originally produced to inform members of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) who produced artworks to support World Albatross Day 2020. They have been produced in the three ACAP official languages of English, French and Spanish.
Similarly, summaries in English for the nine ACAP-listed petrels and shearwaters were used to accompany ABUN paintings in 2021 for a project entitled “Painting Petrels in Peril”. These nine accounts are now available on the ACAP website (click here) in English, completing the series. Preparation of French and Spanish versions are currently underway and will be added soon.
Eight ACAP-listed albatrosses and petrels breed on Marion (as listed below), of which six have definitely been proven to be attacked by the island’s introduced House Mice. The remaining two, the Southern Giant Petrel and the White-chinned Petrel, are thought to be equally at risk, although direct evidence of attacks by mice is currently lacking. A further species, the winter-breeding burrowing Great-winged Petrel Pterodroma macroptera, which is not ACAP-listed, has also been proven to be attacked by mice.
A colony of Grey-headed Albatrosses on Marion Island by ABUN artist Anne Lyon, after a photograph by Michelle Risi
Click on the common names below to access the Mouse-Free Marion Photo Essay for each species
Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma
Light-mantled Albatross Phoebetria fusca
Sooty Albatross Phoebetria palpebrata
Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans
Grey Petrel Procellaria cinerea
Northern Giant Petrel Macronectes hall
Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus
White-chinned Petrel Procellaria aequinoctialis
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 31 May 2022
The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross and petrel-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit Southern Giant Petrel.
