S&P’s wildlife spotlight: the toroa

This month’s wildlife spotlight is a species we are so lucky to have breeding just ‘down the road’ from us - the toroa (Northern Royal Albatross, Diomedea sandfordi).

A toroa seen at the Royal Albatross Centre on Taiaroa Head, Ōtepoti

One of the first things we did when we moved to Dunedin was head down to Taiaroa Head for a tour at the Royal Albatross Centre - and what a magical experience it was! Watching these majestic birds effortlessly glide around the viewing station, as they attempt to land to deliver a feed to their growing chick. Their incredible wingspan reaches over 2.5m in length, making them one of the largest sea birds in the world! I could honestly watch them glide around all day!

The toroa at Taiaroa Head are the only mainland breeding colony of albatross in the world! Breeding birds arrive at the nesting site in September, where pairs reunite after spending a year at sea - talk about a long distance relationship! An egg (just one!) is laid in October, and it take 80 days to incubate! The egg hatches in January-February, and parents take turns feeding and guarding the chick. As the chick grows, it looses its ‘fluff’ and grows flight feathers, and packs on the pounds over the winter months - and will at one stage during its development weigh more than it's parents!! As the chick strengthens its wing muscles, some of this excess weight is lost - and by the time it fledges in September (about 240 days after it hatched) - it will weigh between 6 - 9 kilograms! You can follow this entire lifecycle of a chick by tuning into the ‘Royal Cam’ - which is a live stream that runs 24/7 of an albatross nest!

Once they take this first flight, they won’t touch land again for another 3 - 5 years, and when they do - they will return to Taiaroa Head - where they’ll hang out with some of the other adolescents, and eventually (probably a few years later) find a mate.

When the first albatross returns to the mainland each year, bells are rung across the city of Dunedin to celebrate the return of these incredible birds to begin another breeding season!

But like so many of our native taonga - they have many threats. A huge fluffy chick is easy prey for many of our introduced mammalian predators, with cats & mustelids particular threats. Predator trapping is undertaken in the area during the breeding season, and it is possibly the longest-running predator control programme in New Zealand. Fly strike is another problem for the young chicks as they hatch; if the conditions are too hot, the parents must stand to cool themselves, leaving their chicks vulnerable to fly strike - which is often fatal. Sprinklers are now used in the area to help cool nests during the hot summer days. And of course, for the parents who are finding food for their chicks at sea - long line fishing & plastic pollution are significant threats to them when they’re out on these fishing voyages.

But, there is hope; the last couple of breeding seasons have been a huge success - with some of the highest numbers of chicks fledging in recent years. But this is only possible because of the hard work of folks who carry out the predator control, regularly monitor the chicks, supplementary feed them when necessary… and so on. So we owe a huge debt of thanks to these hard working people for protecting this taonga for us all to admire!

For the month of June (2022) we’ll have 10% off all our toroa products - shop now!