ACAP Data Portal

Sooty Albatross

Phoebetria fusca Hilsenberg,1822

Updated on 18-Jul-2009

Critically Endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Near Threatened

Least Concern

Not Listed

Sometimes referred to as

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Taxonomy

Order	Procellariiformes
Family	Diomedeidae
Genus	Phoebetria
Species	P. fusca

Order Procellariiformes

Family Diomedeidae

Genus Phoebetria

Species P. fusca

The genus Phoebetria was created by Reichenbach in 1853, but included only one species, P. fuliginosa. Although the Sooty Albatross (P. fusca) was first collected in 1822 and the similar Light-mantled Albatross (P. palpebrata) in 1795, it was not until 1913 that Cushman Murphy revised the genus to include both P. fusca and P. palpebrata ^[1 ]. More recent analyses of complete mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene sequences have confirmed the placement of both species within this genus ^{[2 ]}.

Conservation Listings and Plans

International

Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels - Annex 1 ^[3 ]
2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - Endangered (since 2003) ^{[4 ]}
Convention on Migratory Species - Listed Species (Appendix II) ^{[5 ]}

Australia

Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) ^{[6 ]}

- Listed as Vulnerable

- Listed Migratory Species

- Listed Marine Species

Threat abatement plan for the incidental catch (or bycatch) of seabirds during oceanic longline fishing operations (2006) ^{[7 ]}
National Recovery Plan for Albatrosses and Giant Petrels 2001 ^{[8 ]}
South Australia: National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 - Vulnerable (as Diomedea fusca) ^{[9 ]}
Tasmania: Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 - Rare ^{[10 ]}
Victoria: Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 - Threatened ^{[11 ]}
Western Australia: Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 - Wildlife Conservation (Specially Protected Fauna) Notice 2008 (2) - Vulnerable ^{[12 ]}

France

Ministerial Order of 14 August 1998 (Arrêté du 14 août 1998) - Listed Protected Species ^{[13 ]}

South Africa

Sea Birds and Seals Protection Act, 1973 (Act No. 46 of 1973) ^{[14 ]}
Marine Living Resources Act (Act No. 18 of 1996): Policy on the Management of Seals, Seabirds and Shorebirds: 2007 ^{[15 ]}

National Plan of Action for Reducing the Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries 2008 ^{[16 ]}

Tristan da Cunha, UK Overseas Territories

The Conservation of Native Organisms and Natural Habitats (Tristan da Cunha) Ordinance 2006 ^{[17 ]}

Breeding Biology

Phoebetria fusca is a biennial breeder and lays a single egg with no replacement laying. This species nests solitarily or in small colonies or clusters, building pedestal nests along sheltered cliff edges ^[18, 19]. Birds show high fidelity to nesting colonies and arrive on Marion and Gough Islands and Iles Crozet in late August but one month earlier at the main group of Tristan da Cunha Islands. Egg laying ranges from mid-September to late October (Table 1), although synchronised within each colony, and incubation duties are shared^{[19 ]}. Eggs hatch in early to mid-December after incubation periods averaging 70-71 days (range 66-71 days on Iles Crozet ^{[18 ]} and 69-73 days on Marion Island ^{[19 ]}); chicks are brooded for an additional 21 days. On Iles Crozet, the average age of first breeding is 11.8 years ^{[20 ]}. Chicks fledge in May.

Table 1. Breeding cycle of P. fusca across all sites. See text for site-specific periods.

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

At colonies

Egg laying

Incubating

Chick provisioning

Breeding site name	Jurisdiction	Latitude	Longitude	Size of breeding site (hectares)
Gough Island, Gough Island	United Kingdom	40° 19' S	9° 55' W
Ile Amsterdam, Amsterdam	France	37° 51' S	77° 31' E	40,000
Ile aux Cochons, Ile aux Cochons	France	46° 05' S	50° 15' E	660,000
Ile de l'Est, Ile de l'Est	France	46° 25' S	52° 10' E	1,300,000
Ile de la Possession, Ile de la Possession	France	46° 24' S	51° 45' E	1,460,000
Ile des Apotres, Ile des Apotres	France	45° 58' S	50° 27' E	80,000
Ile des Pingouins, Ile des Pingouins	France	46° 25' S	50° 25' E
Inaccessible Island, Inaccessible Island	United Kingdom	37° 19' S	12° 44' W
Jeanne d'Arc Peninsula, Kerguelen (Grande Terre)	France	49° 41' S	70° 00' E
Marion Island, Marion Island	South Africa	46° 54' S	37° 45' E	29,000
Nightingale, Nightingale	United Kingdom	37° 26' S	12° 29' W
Prince Edward Island, Prince Edward Island	South Africa	46° 38' S	37° 57' E	4,500
St Paul, St Paul	France	38° 43' S	77° 32' E	80,000
Stoltenhoff Island, Stoltenhoff	United Kingdom	37° 26' S	12° 28' W
Tristan da Cunha, Tristan da Cunha	United Kingdom	37° 07' S	12° 17' W

Threats

Nature of threat	Threat sub-category	Severity of threat	Scope of threat	Breeding site name	Threat species
Parasite or pathogen	Pathogen	Medium	Low	Ile Amsterdam	Pasteurella multocida
Parasite or pathogen	Pathogen	Medium	Medium	Ile Amsterdam	Pasteurella multocida
Parasite or pathogen	Pathogen	High	Medium	Ile Amsterdam	Pasteurella multocida
Parasite or pathogen	Pathogen	High	High	Ile Amsterdam	Pasteurella multocida
Predation by alien species	Predation by alien species	Low	Low	Marion Island	Mus musculus
Predation by alien species	Predation by alien species	Low	Low	Marion Island	Mus musculus

	Frequency of occurrence in region
	Resident/ Breeding and feeding range	Foraging range only	Few records - outside core foraging range

Known ACAP Range States	France South Africa United Kingdom	Australia	Argentina New Zealand Chile Brazil Uruguay

Regional Fisheries Management Organisations	ICCAT CCAMLR CCSBT IOTC SIOFA SEAFO SWIOFC		WCPFC SPRFMO

Exclusive Economic Zones of non-ACAP countries			Mauritius Madagascar Mozambique Namibia

CCAMLR - Comission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
CCSBT - Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna
IOTC - Indian Ocean Tuna Commission
ICCAT - International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
SPRFMO - South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation
SEAFO - South-East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation
SWIOFC - South-West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission
SIOFA - Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement
WCPFC - Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission

	Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels - Data Portal
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Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels - Data Portal

Threats