Footage of tiny colony of birds on the southern tip of New Zealand captivates millions around the globe

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Millions of amateur naturalists around the world have been tuning in to the secret lives of albatrosses as New Zealand rangers employ YouTube in a bid to save the mysterious giant sea birds.

New Zealand conservation teams set up a 24-hour live-stream of an albatross nest at Taiaroa Head on the Otago peninsula in 2016. Three years on, the feed has become an unexpected global hit, with 2.3 million people from 190 countries tuning in to watch the endangered birds rear their chicks on a frigid peninsula at the bottom of the world.

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“Someone somewhere in the world is watching 24 hours a day,” says department of conservation (DoC) ranger Jim Watts.

“People watch it in hospitals, in nursing homes. There’s a real intimacy to watching the chicks grow – people fall in love and become invested.”

The northern royal albatross – or toroa in the Maori language te reo – is endemic to New Zealand and is under threat from climate change, fly-strike disease and heat stress. The birds have been described as “casualties on the frontline” of the war against plastic, as they mainly feed by swooping down on squid in the ocean – and often mistake brightly coloured plastic for prey.

The estimated total population of northern royal albatross is 17,000, and with intensive intervention the Taiaroa Head population has doubled since 1990. But that protected colony represents only 1% of the total population, and their small New Zealand home has become “crucial” to conservation efforts as they are the only managed and quantifiable settlement of the rare and endangered birds in the world.

The other 99% of toroa live on remote sub-antarctic Chatham Islands and have never been accurately counted or managed, though survey drone flights are planned in the near future.

Watts says the 24/7 coverage from the camera has provided valuable insights into the lives of the elusive birds, and has the capacity to ensure more vulnerable chicks reach adulthood.

Royalcam, as it is known, has captured the birds arriving at their nests in the night – which the rangers previously didn’t know they did – and also recorded dramatic scenes including the chicks first flight and predators such as cats and stoats infiltrating the protected peninsula to kill the nest-bound young.

In early 2018 a mother albatross attacked her chick in an unusual and gruesome episode. The death was livestreamed around the world and viewers frantically called the department office in Dunedin, begging the rangers to intervene. The rangers were off duty and unable to help, but said if a similar incident occurred again they would react immediately.

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There is hope that 2019 will hold better news for the colony. More than 50 eggs have been laid this year in a record breeding season, and rangers are gearing up for the “intense” period after the eggs hatch in January.

After the hatchings, the rangers will choose the annual “star” of Royalcam, taking into account the parents personality, the chick’s personality, and which family can handle the extra attention. Then the public get to vote on a name for the chick.

More than 100,000 comments have been posted in the community Royalcam discussion group, including from a primary school class in the town of Napier who watch the live stream before their lessons every morning.

“We watch the baby chick albatross every day,” said their teacher.

“We just simply love it.”

Watts said viewers’ investment in the birds’ lives had financial and conservation pay-offs, and donations to the royal albatross centre had increased since the cam went live, allowing rangers to fund a sprinkler system for the coming season to keep the birds and chicks cool and healthy.

‘When we do go home you are constantly with the birds in your mind,” says Watts.

And like millions of viewers, Watts says during breeding season “you never really clock off, you never really leave them.”