Albatross
Of the 22 species recognised by the IUCN, all are listed as at some level of concern. Species of the genus Diomedea have the longest wingspans of any extant birds, reaching up to 3. 7 m. They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific.
About Albatross in brief
Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds. Species of the genus Diomedea have the longest wingspans of any extant birds, reaching up to 3. 7 m. They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific. They are absent from the North Atlantic, although fossil remains show they once occurred there and occasional vagrants are found. Of the 22 species recognised by the IUCN, all are listed as at some level of concern. Three species are critically endangered, five species are endangered, seven species are near threatened, and 7 species are vulnerable. Longline fishing poses the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait, become hooked on the lines, and drown. They feed on squid, fish, and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing, or diving. They have a tendon in each shoulder locking their wings fully-extended, so once aloft and soaring across a fair breeze they never need to flap their wings. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of \”ritualised dances\”, and last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging, with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt. The taxonomy of the albatross group has been a source of much debate. Within the family, the assignment of genera has been debated for over 100 years. They were originally placed into a single genus, Diamedea, they were rearranged by Reichenbach into four different genera in 1852, then lumped back together and split apart again several times, acquiring different genus names.
By 1965, in an attempt to bring some order back to the family they were lumped into two genera Phoebetria and diomedea. Though a case was made for the simplification of the classification of the family, little attention has been paid to more recent studies. They proposed the resurrection of two of the old names for North Pacific albatroses, Phastoletia and albatria for the Pacific Pacific. More recent research by Gary Nunn of the American Museum of Natural History and other researchers around the world studied the mitochondrial DNA of all 14 species, finding not two, but four, monophyletic groups within the al batrosses. The albatcrosses can be separated from the other Procellariiformes both genetically and through morphological characteristics, size, their legs, and the arrangement of their nasal tubes. The great albatRosses are considered to be a sister taxon to the great albatsrosses, while the sooty albat Rosses are closer to the mollymawks. The sooties are considered closer to the mollsymawks, and are called sootie albatruses. Albatross species are threatened by introduced species, such as rats and feral cats that attack eggs, chicks, and nesting adults; by pollution; by a serious decline in fish stocks.
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This page is based on the article Albatross published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
