Albatross numbers around the world have been plummeting, but while longline fishing is the suspected culprit, no one is completely sure of the cause due to the fact that the birds spend months or (in the case of wandering albatross) years without ever returning to land. A recent study by the British Antarctic Survey of grey-headed albatross sheds some light on where the birds go while at sea:
“The researchers found that more than half of the birds flew completely around the world, following the chilled oceans below 30 degrees latitude south. One bird circled the globe three times in 18 months, and another flew more than 13,000 miles in just 46 days.”
The full article can be found here.
Grey-Headed Albatross at Elsehul.