ACAP Data Portal

Buller's Albatross

Thalassarche bulleri Rothschild, 1893

Updated on 16-Aug-2008

Critically Endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Near Threatened

Least Concern

Not Listed

Sometimes referred to as

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Taxonomy

Order	Procellariiformes
Family	Diomedeidae
Genus	Thalassarche
Species	T. bulleri

Originally described as Diomedea bulleri (Rothschild 1893) and D. platei (Reichenow 1898) the two taxa were long considered to be subspecies ^[5 ]until recently when it was suggested that they should be treated as distinct species ^{[6 ]}. It was also suggested that the type specimen of T. platei was in fact an immature T. bulleri ^{[6 ]}, however, the recognition of the taxa as two separate species remained controversial ^{[7, 8 ]}. Most recently, following scrutiny of morphological data, and in the absence of genetic data, the ACAP Taxonomy Working Group recommended that these taxa do not warrant specific status and further recommended that they be listed as T.b. bulleri and T.b. platei pending the collection and analysis of additional morphological, behavioural and molecular genetic data which might be used to distinguish them reliably ^{[9 ]}.

Conservation Listings and Plans

International

Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels – Annex 1 ^[1 ]
2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – Near Threatened ^{[2 ]}
Convention on Migratory Species - Listed Species (Appendix II; as Diomedea bulleri) ^{[3 ]}

National – New Zealand

New Zealand Threat Classification System List 2005

– Range Restricted; (listed separately, as Thalassarche bulleri and Thalassarche nov. sp.) ^{[4 ]}

Breeding Biology

Thalassarche bulleri is a colonial, annual breeding species with each breeding cycle lasting about 8 months. In T.b. bulleri most eggs are laid during January, hatch March-April, and the chicks fledge in August-September (Table 1) ^[10 ]. At least 3 years after fledging, immature birds begin to return to a breeding colony. However, the average age of first breeding is 10-11 years, when they begin breeding annually, with males mostly returning to their natal colony while only about half the females do so, the rest breed in adjacent colonies ^{[11 ]}. For T.b. platei eggs are laid in October-November, hatch in January, and the chicks fledge in June-July (Table 1) ^{[12 ]}.

Table 1. Breeding cycle of T. bulleri.

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

T.b. bulleri

At colonies

Egg laying

Incubating

Chick provisioning

T.b. platei

At colonies

Egg laying

Incubating

Chick provisioning

Breeding site name	Jurisdiction	Latitude	Longitude	Size of breeding site (hectares)
Alert Stack, Alert Stack	New Zealand	48° 02' S	166° 34' E
Broughton Island, Broughton Island	New Zealand	48° 02' S	166° 37' E	10,000
Great Solander Island, Great Solander Island	New Zealand	46° 35' S	166° 54' E	100
Little Solander Island, Little Solander Island	New Zealand	46° 34' 09" S	166° 51' 46" E	8
North-East Island , North-East Island	New Zealand	48° 01' S	166° 36' E	280
Rosemary Rock, Rosemary Rock	New Zealand	34° 10' 54" S	172° 03' 22" E
The Big Sister, The Big Sister	New Zealand	43° 34' S	176° 49' W
The Forty-fours, The Forty-fours	New Zealand	43° 58' S	175° 45' W
The Little (Middle) Sister, The Little (Middle) Sister	New Zealand	43° 34' S	176° 49' W
Toru Islet, Toru Islet	New Zealand	48° 03' S	166° 31' E

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

Known ACAP Range States	New Zealand	Australia Chile Peru

Regional Fisheries Management Organisations	WCPFC CCSBT	IATTC SPRFMO IOTC

CCSBT - Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna
IOTC - Indian Ocean Tuna Commission
IATTC - Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
SPRFMO - South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation
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