Recruitment age of wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) on Bird Island, South Georgia, from 1982 to 2021
GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02161
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Summary
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.
Keywords:
Bird Island, South Georgia, recruitment, snowy albatross, wandering albatross
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
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Constraints
| Access Constraints: | This dataset is under embargo until the publication of the relevant manuscript. |
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| Use Constraints: | 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/. |
Basic Information
| Creation Date: | 2026-03-04 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| 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 |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
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 |
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| 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. |
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Locality
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| 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: | |
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| 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. |