Chatham Albatross

Thalassarche eremita

Breeds on a single sea stack off New Zealand. Every Chatham Albatross on Earth hatches from The Pyramid.

Population: ~11,000 mature individuals (~5,300 breeding pairs, based on ~2003 counts), stable population trend
Habitat: Pelagic marine environments at sea, favoring open ocean over continental shelf waters; breeds on rocky ledges and steep slopes/crevices of a single volcanic sea-stack
Fun fact: The entire world population of Chatham Albatrosses breeds on a single steep, guano-whitened volcanic sea-stack called The Pyramid — an area of only about 1.7 hectares — making it one of the most range-restricted breeding seabirds on Earth; a 2014-2018 translocation moved 300 chicks to Main Chatham Island to seed a safer, secondary colony.
Range: Breeds exclusively on The Pyramid (Pyramid Rock), Chatham Islands, New Zealand; non-breeding range extends across the South Pacific (Tasmania/southeast Australia) to the Humboldt Current off Chile and Peru
Diet: Fish, cephalopods, krill, and barnacles, taken by surface-seizing and shallow plunge-diving; regularly attracted to fishing-vessel discards
Size: 0.9 m
Wingspan: 2.2 m
Lifespan: 38 years

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