Albatross Seabirds: a Love Story

These huge creatures may look like any common seabird but albatrosses are some of the most fascinating animals thanks to their enormous wingspan, impressive mating dances and the ability to sleep while flying!

Albatross or Seagull?

Albatrosses are often mistaken as big gulls, but the truth is although the two species are both seabirds and they may look alike in pictures, albatrosses and seagulls are not even in the same biological family! Albatrosses are part of the diomedeidae family whereas seagulls are of the laridae. There is also a huge difference in the two birds' sizes. Albatrosses, for instance, are some of the biggest birds in the world with a medium wingspan of 3 meters. Seagulls barely reach 1.5 meters! They also have very different beaks: albatrosses have longer and lighter colored beaks, often pointier than the seagull's. Albatrosses are known for being the birds that spend most time far out in sea, unlike seagulls who have the capabilities to fly out in the ocean for a long time but live on dry land so they never venture too far out if not to fetch for food. Another difference between the two is their lifespan. If seagulls live for about twenty years, albatrosses easily live until seventy! The oldest albatross to ever be registered is Wisdom, a female albatross who is currently 73 and out searching for a new mate after the previous one did not return. Albatrosses are one of the bird species that live the longest and Wisdom is not only the oldest albatross, but also the oldest bird to have lived.

Where Do Albatrosses Live?

Albatrosses live in the southern hemisphere and in some parts of the Pacific Ocean. They live most of their lives out in the sea because, thanks to their ability to fly without flapping their wings, they can spend years without touching dry land. As a matter of fact, by locking their wings in a flying position they can even sleep while flying! They are able to fly without flapping their wings by zigzagging in the air and letting the ocean winds push them up in the sky. The only occasions in which they return to solid ground are when they are ready to mate. return to their birthplace to lay their eggs every two years. Partners build nests for their forthcoming chick. Once their chick has grown up and found a mate it will return to the same place and start a family of its own. When they're on dry land they live in colonies so if their territory becomes unsuitable for their nests the whole colony will be in danger.

The Albatross's Romantic Lives

Albatrosses mate for life. Who would have thought that these big, stubborn birds could be romantic? Well, albatrosses spend three-fourths of the year to search for a mate. After spending half a decade out in the sea, young albatrosses unite with their peers in groups to find the right partner with whom they'll have to spend the rest of their life with to ensure their future chick's survival. So how do they choose who's best for them? Albatrosses have an elaborate courtship dance they use to impress potential mates. It performs a series of head nodding and swaying with occasional rattling and mooing.

When Love Goes Wrong

Although it's rare, like any other animal albatrosses may divorce! If they do they are putting their monogamous love life at stake. It often occurs that the female leaves the male partner therefore it appears to be easier for female albatrosses to find a new mate. They usually divorce if they're unsatisfied with their partner's personality, but recent studies have shown that the female albatrosses living in the Île de la Possession's colony tend to prefer brave and flaunty suitors more than the shy and conservative types. Studies have also proved that black-browed albatrosses are divorcing more often because of the stresses of climate change. Global warming causes the seabirds to go further out in the sea to search for prey which are forced to migrate to warmer or colder waters, depending on what their bodies request. This affects the albatrosses' emotional state because travelling longer distances to fetch food for their family means taking longer to return. Altering their mental state also negatively affects their nurturing, which is the one thing that their partners need them for. Climate-caused divorces may become one of the many causes of the albatrosses' risk of extinction.

The Albatrosses' Biggest Threats

Albatrosses are threatened by species such as rats, feral cats and occasional invasive species which attack them and their eggs. Other than that they don't have many predators, but, like for many other creatures, humans are a direct and indirect threat to albatrosses. Seabirds often get accidentally caught in human fishing gear: this is called bycatch. Albatross bycatch is one of the main reasons why they might go extinct. Also, albatrosses reproduce every two years and don't have more than one chick at a time, so there is no way for them to increase their population. Climate change is another one of their biggest threats: rising sea levels are dangerous because the islands they nest on might get completely covered in water and albatrosses are pretty stubborn when it comes to changing nesting spots. These factors, added to the plastic waste in the oceans that they accidentally ingest, make all 22 species officially endangered or vulnerable.

The Albatross Metaphor

You may have heard the word "albatross" used in metaphorical terms to indicate a mental burden which is difficult to overlook. The term derives from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in which a sailor who shot a lucky albatross is punished by being forced to wear the bird's cadaver around his neck.

«God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look'st thou so?'—
With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.

[...]

And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariner's hollo!

[...]

Ah! well a-day!
what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.»