Anyone want to take up a collection to fund Greg Miller's travel?
David (dstrother@pop.dn.net)
Thu, 26 Nov 1998 21:56:48 -0500
Short-tailed albatross back from the brink
Asahi Shimbun 11/26/98
Once thought to be extinct, one of Japan's largest and most magnificent
sea birds is back from the brink and will soon crest the critical
population size of more than 1,000, a biologist reported recently. The
short-tailed albatross, which was thought to have been annihilated
earlier in the century by hunters seeking its down, has climbed to a
population of 950 ahead of this year's breeding season, said assistant
professor Hiroshi Hasegawa of Toho University.
Hasegawa expects albatross pairs to lay from 200 to 250 eggs during the
breeding season with about 120 to 140 of the young surviving long enough
to fledge. Even with adult mortality, the number of birds in the
population is expected to reach 1,000 in the
spring--a number Hasegawa considers critical in terms of the likelihood
that the species will survive. "My dream was to increase the population
to 1,000, the number of eggs to 200 and of young to 100," said Hasegawa,
who began studying the birds in 1976.
Surviving albatrosses were discovered after the bird was believed
extinct on uninhabited islands off Japan in 1951. Breeding of the bird
was confirmed in 1988 on the disputed Sea of Japan islands known in
Japan as the Senkaku Islands and Diaoyu Islands in Chinese. Originally,
the breeding population of the albatross was about 150, and eggs
numbered fewer than 50. Of these, 15 young fledged.
Japan is believed to be one of only two places on Earth where the
protected species breeds. The bird has a wingspan of 2.5 meters and is
considered one of the largest birds in the Pacific. It was named
aho-dori, or "stupid bird," for its fearlessness of humans which often
makes it easy to trap.
Hasegawa said he travels to an island inhabited by albatross at least
three times a year---in early spring, summer and late fall--to study the
breeding population there. Hasegawa has prepared a 1999 calendar of
photographs he took on the island, featuring young birds seeking food,
courtship dances or incubating females. The pictures are accompanied by
text about the birds. For inquiries about the calendar, call Ocean
Engineering Research, Inc. at 03-3207-7727.
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Well, actually, from here you'd have to call 9-011-81-3-3207-7727...and
speak Japanese.