Status of the Short-tailed Albatross ( Diomedea albatrus ) and Its Conservation and Breeding Project

The Ministry of the Environment is pleased to announce that it has succeeded in relocating a colony of Short-tailed Albatross - 13 chicks were identified at a new breeding site at Hatsunezaki on Torishima Island during its monitoring conducted in February 2006. On the entire Torishima Island, Toho University's monitoring in April 2006 observed the fledging of 195 chicks, the largest number since the university's monitoring began. The total population of the Short-tailed Albatross at present in Torishima Island is estimated around 1,830.

A project to guide Short-tailed Albatross to form new colonies in the Ogasawara Islands was launched this year. Mukojima Island, part of the Ogasawara Islands, was selected as their new breeding site. This year, the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, with the cooperation of the U.S. Government, plans to conduct an experiment in which they translocate chicks of the Black-footed Albatross, a relative species to the Short-tailed Albatross, to Mukojima Island from other islands of the Mukojima Archipelago and raise them to fledge.

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