Full Record - Recruitment age of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on Bird Island, South Georgia, from 1982 to 2021

Recruitment age of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on Bird Island, South Georgia, from 1982 to 2021

GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02161

Abstract:
This dataset contains the age at first observed breeding attempt (recruitment age) of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) ringed as fledglings between 1976 and 2008, in a study colony at Bird Island, South Georgia. Observations of breeding attempts presented in this dataset were made from 1983 to 2021. Birds were sexed from plumage.

Data were collected by Bird Island Zoological Field Assistants as part of the long-term monitoring of this colony, and were collated as part of a study of wandering albatross recruitment and the behaviour of immature and deferring adults attending the colony.

Funded as part of the Bird Island Long-term Monitoring Programme at BAS.

Citation:
Pearmain, E.J., Bennison, A., Wood, A.G., & Phillips, R.A. (2026). Recruitment age of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on Bird Island, South Georgia, from 1982 to 2021 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/3c6bed95-4fdd-430f-871a-3585421fbc2f

Access Data

GET DATA

http://ramadda.data.bas.ac.uk/repository/entry/show?entryid=3c6bed95-4fdd-430f-871a-3585421fbc2f

REFERENCE MATERIALS

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618819114

License

Access:	This dataset is under embargo until the publication of the relevant manuscript.
Use:	This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Authors

Name	UK Polar Data Centre
Role(s)	Metadata Author
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Name	Elizabeth J Pearmain
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Name	Dr Ashley Bennison
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Name	Dr Andrew G Wood
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Name	Prof Richard A Phillips
Role(s)	Investigator, Technical Contact
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Basic Information

Creation Date:	2026-03-04
Dataset Progress:	Complete
Dataset Language:	English
ISO Topic Categories:	Biota
Parameters:	Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Life History Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Population Dynamics Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Species Recruitment Oceans > Marine Biology > Marine Birds

Additional Information

Reference:	Pearmain, E. J., Carneiro, A. P. B., Bennison, A., Wood, A. G., Manica, A., & Phillips, R. A. (in prep). Colony attendance, not foraging ability, is key to recruitment in wandering albatross. Pardo, D., Forcada, J., Wood, A. G., Tuck, G. N., Ireland, L., Pradel, R., Croxall, J. P., & Phillips, R. A. (2017). Additive effects of climate and fisheries drive ongoing declines in multiple albatross species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(50), E10829-E10837. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618819114
Quality:	Birds recorded as only having bred once were excluded from the dataset as it's unlikely for a wandering albatross to reach maturity and then only breed once, so these records likely result from ring misreadings.
Lineage/Methodology:	Fieldwork took place at a long-term study colony of wandering albatross on Bird Island, South Georgia (54°00'S; 38°03'W). All chicks have been ringed here each year since 1972 and nests have been monitored annually since 1980 (for details see Pardo et al. 2017). The wandering albatross breeding cycle lasts around 1 year: eggs are laid in December, hatch in March, and chicks fledge in November-December. Age at recruitment is based on the time elapsed since ringing as a chick and the first observation of breeding. Observations are made from daily checks for nests with eggs during the laying period in the Wanderer Ridge area (54° 00'30'' S, 38° 02'32'' W), and checks every 1-2 weeks during incubation elsewhere on Bird Island. Birds were sexed where possible from plumage. Whole-island monitoring only began in 1980, so although ringing began in 1972, recruitment data was only collated from birds ringed post-1976 to exclude birds that might have bred unobserved before 1980. Recruitment data was only collated from birds ringed up to 2008 to exclude birds from a cohort where some individuals might not yet have begun to breed, as including them would skew the mean recruitment age downwards. All data were collected under permit from the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and all sampling procedures used were regulated by the British Antarctic Survey Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body.

Extent

Temporal Coverage:
Start Date	1982-11-01
End Date	2022-04-30

Spatial Coverage:
Latitude
Southernmost	-54.00833
Northernmost	-54.00833
Longitude
Westernmost	-38.0422
Easternmost	-38.0422
Altitude
Min Altitude	N/A
Max Altitude	N/A
Depth
Min Depth	N/A
Max Depth	N/A

Latitude
Southernmost	-54
Northernmost	-54
Longitude
Westernmost	-38.05
Easternmost	-38.05
Altitude
Min Altitude	N/A
Max Altitude	N/A
Depth
Min Depth	N/A
Max Depth	N/A

Location:
Location	South Georgia Island
Detailed Location	Wanderer Ridge, Bird Island
Location	South Georgia Island
Detailed Location	Bird Island

Storage

Distribution:
Distribution Media	Online Internet (HTTP)
Distribution Size	144KB
Distribution Format	ASCII
Fees	N/A

Data Storage:	This dataset consists of 1 x .csv file: bi_waa_recruitment_age_1982-2021.csv [144KB] This contains the following columns: bto_ring - number on metal ring placed on bird leg and subsequently read to identify the bird season_ringed - season in which bird was ringed (season of fledging) sex - sex as determined from plumage season_first_bred - season in which the bird first attempted to breed age_first_bred - age of the bird in its first breeding season Breeding seasons ("season") are referred to by the year in which the chick usually fledges, e.g. 2020 indicates the 2019/20 season.