The sight of this familiar albatross seabird with enormous wings soaring high above the waters has captured the human imagination, and has inspired legends and folklore around the world for centuries.
Humans over food led to a rapid decline in numbers.
Appearance of an albatross
The albatross is a strong bird with a large body with some differences in white, black or gray color (some species have one color, the southern royal albatross is almost completely white), and
the long orange or yellow beak is hooked at the end and contains many plates with horns, and the He has tubes along the side that enable him to measure airspeed in flight.
Its most impressive physical feature is the sheer size of the wings. Judging by the size of the wings, the great albatross (and the wandering albatross species in particular) is the largest living group
of birds in the world, spanning 11 feet from tip to tip and weighing up to 22 pounds or roughly the same size as a swan, and even the smaller species have a wingspan of about 6.5 feet, more than most birds.
Instead, the albatross glides on ocean winds for long periods with minimal body movement. This is a necessary adaptation, because it has a lot of weight to carry.
It also means that it cannot fly.
They do well in the absence of wind, but the plus side is that the albatross consumes almost no energy in flight.
The habitat and habitat of the albatross
The albatross is a resident of the southern hemisphere around Antarctica, South America, South Africa and Australia, and in the distant past it had a wide spread in most parts of
the northern hemisphere, but now only a few species live in the North Pacific region between Alaska, California and
Hawaii Japan, with its ability to eat seafood and drink salty water, the albatross has few problems crossing the open ocean, the only thing it really requires is strong winds for its survival, and it has difficulty crossing areas with gaps in the wind.
Albatross population
Decades of human neglect have left the albatross in poor condition.
Of all the species on the IUCN Red List, almost every species is threatened in some way.
The Laysan albatross, whose natural range extends across the entire Pacific Ocean, is a near-endangered species as no About 1.6 million mature individuals remain in the wild.
On the other end of the spectrum, the endangered saltwater albatross and Tristan albatross have only a few thousand members each.
Most species are found somewhere between these two extremes, with 10,000 to 100,000 mature individuals remaining.
For example, the great albatross is endangered with 20,000 individuals remaining.
Conservationists believe that better management of existing fisheries stocks will be necessary to rehabilitate albatross populations.
Habitat restoration and banning certain chemical pollutants will also help in this regard. It is not enough for the United States or any country to act alone, given that
the albatross roams over these large territories (and because changes in one part of the ocean can disrupt others) it will take an international effort to succeed.
Albatross, predators and threats
Because it spends so much time floating above the ocean (where there are no other large carnivores), the albatross has few predators, although
the young are sometimes preyed upon by tiger sharks, and introduced species such as cats and mice sometimes feed on their eggs. the albatross, and the only other significant predator is humanity.
Some Arctic residents may have hunted it as an important source of food in the arid north, and its feathers were also valuable in the manufacture of luxury hats, and the greatest threat to
its survival may be the diminishing food supply as a result of overfishing, and the albatross faces constant competition with humans over scarce resources in the open ocean.
Another threat is marine pollution that builds up in the environment and slowly makes its way up the food chain. Slow poisoning can lead to abnormal development, reproduction and eventually death.