Millions of amateur naturalists around the world have been tuning in to the secret lives of albatrosses as New Zealand rangers employ YouTube in a bid to save the mysterious giant sea birds.
New Zealand conservation teams set up a 24-hour live-stream of an albatross nest at Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula in 2016. Three years on, the feed has become an unexpected global hit, with 2.3 million people from 190 countries tuning in to watch the endangered birds rear their chicks on a frigid peninsula near the bottom of the world.
“Someone somewhere in the world is watching 24 hours a day,” New Zealand Department of Conservation ranger Jim Watts said.
“People watch it in hospitals, in nursing homes. There’s a real intimacy to watching the chicks grow — people fall in love and become invested,” Watts said.
The northern royal albatross — or toroa in the Maori language — is endemic to New Zealand and is under threat from fly-strike disease and heat stress. The birds have been described as “casualties on the frontline” of the war against plastic, as they mainly feed by swooping down on squid in the ocean and often mistake brightly colored plastic for prey.
The estimated total population of northern royal albatross is 17,000, and with intensive intervention the Taiaroa Head population has doubled since 1990. However, that protected colony represents only 1 percent of the total population, and their small New Zealand home has become “crucial” to conservation efforts, as they are the only managed and quantifiable settlement of the rare and endangered birds in the world.
The other 99 percent of toroa live on the remote sub-Antarctic Chatham Islands and have never been accurately counted or managed, although survey drone flights are planned in the near future.
Watts says the round-the-clock coverage from the camera has provided valuable insights into the lives of the elusive birds and has the capacity to ensure that more vulnerable chicks reach adulthood.
Royalcam, as it is known, has captured the birds arriving at their nests in the night, which the rangers previously did not know they did — and also recorded dramatic scenes including the chicks first flight and predators such as cats and stoats infiltrating the protected peninsula to kill the nest-bound young.
There is hope that this year will hold better news for the colony. More than 50 eggs have been laid this year in a record breeding season and rangers are gearing up for the “intense” period after the eggs hatch this month.
Watts said that viewers’ investment in the birds’ lives had financial and conservation pay-offs.
Donations to the Royal Albatross Centre have increased since the webcam went live, allowing rangers to fund a sprinkler system to keep the birds and chicks cool and healthy, he said.
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