Endangered
Antipodean Albatross
Diomedea antipodensis
The Antipodean albatross is a large seabird in the albatross family.
Appearance
Its breeding plumage is brown and white and its juveniles are similar in appearance to the snowy albatross. Breeding females have brown upper parts, and have white vermiculations on their back. Its face, throat, lower breast, and belly are white, and its undertail coverts are brown.
The Antipodean is large, at 110 cm (43 in) in length.
Range and habitat
At sea Antipodean albatrosses range across the South Pacific from Australia to as far as Chile, from the Tropic of Capricorn south. The gibsonii seems to range to the east of Auckland Island, and the nominate race ranges to the east to Chile.
A 2007 population estimate numbered between 4,635 and 5,757 breeding pairs on Antipodes Island, 5,800 pairs on the Auckland Islands (Adams Island, Auckland Island, and Disappointment Island), and 10 pairs on Campbell Island. There has been 1 pair breeding on Pitt Island, Chatham Islands since 2004.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Antipodean albatrosses are smaller than other former wandering albatrosses, now called snowy albatrosses, and breed in predominantly brown plumage, but are otherwise difficult to distinguish from young snowy albatrosses (snowy albatrosses grow lighter in color with age, while the Antipodean stays darker).
In crisis
The IUCN classifies this albatross as Endangered, with an occurrence range of 37,400,000 km2 (14,400,000 sq mi). Although its breeding range is only 670 km2 (260 sq mi). This places the total population at 25,300. Pigs and feral cats are hurting the population on Auckland Island and longline fishing is still impacting them.
Antipodean Albatross is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Antipodean Albatross, Wikidata item Q2328411. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
