Fledging of the Short-tailed Albatross Chicks Moved to Mukojima

As of today, all 15 of the Short-tailed Albatross chicks have left their new home on Mukojima (an Ogasawara/Bonin Island) where they were hand-reared. The chicks were relocated from Torishima (an Izu Island) to Mukojima on February 5, 2009 under the U.S.-Japan joint project to establish a new colony on Mukojima.

The relocated chicks have been hand-reared over the last three months by a team of researchers at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology. The first chick to fledge was a female, on May 11, and the last to fledge was a male, on May 25.
The chicks are expected to migrate to the Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands, and the Alaskan coast in the North Pacific.

Satellite transmitters attached to 7 of the 15 chicks are expected to reveal the behavior of the chicks after fledging.

For Japanese