David Attenborough, BBC Wildlife, on the Royal albatross: “Otago Peninsula and Taiaroa Head is a unique and very special place. It is a place every visitor to Dunedin should see.”

I spent a delightful day in mid January of 2019 filming the Northern Royal Albatross (Diomedea sanfordi ) in the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand. The best time time to watch them in flight is after 3pm when the winds start to pick up. The Albatross needs the wind to take off and relies on the winds to glide effortlessly. It has a wingspan in excess of three metres ( 9 ft 8 ins) and weighs about 9-10kg.

Photographic notes: These footages were shot with a Sony a7iii+100-400GM lens.
**This video is copyrighted to the owner - Chew Yen Fook. **

Interesting facts:
"Albatrosses can live to 60 years and beyond. They mate for life and some do not find another if their partner dies. They have the longest wingspan of any bird, reaching up to 3.5m (11.5ft). In 2005, it was found that a grey-headed albatross had flown 13,670 miles around the world in the Southern Hemisphere in 46 days."

According to reports, more than 100,000 albatrosses are killed annually by getting caught in bait lines of fishing vessels – about one every five minutes.

Conservation status (wiki)
The IUCN classifies this bird as vulnerable, with an occurrence range of 63,400,000 km2 (24,500,000 sq mi) and a breeding range of 750 km2 (290 sq mi), with a total estimated population of between 28,000 and 29,500 (1997).

As a top-tier organism in its natural habitat, it has very few predators but major fishing industries are a huge problem for all albatross species among other seabirds.

The population is recovering from its severe downward spiral in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the 1880s, this albatross was extirpated from Auckland Island and Enderby Island. Pigs and cats are still a problem, as they take chicks and eggs, on Auckland Island. Longline fishing is a major problem and a possible emerging threat is Dracophyllum, a scrub that is taking away from their nesting range.

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