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Albatrosses' Life-Long Bond Begins With Elaborate Courtship – Ep. 3 | Wildlife: Resurrection Island


4m read
·Nov 11, 2024

You think that's fighting? The biggest bird in the world would be quite straightforward. Turns out, no! Here he comes. [Music] That is the biggest bird on the planet. Each one of those wings is as wide as I am tall. The wandering albatross's wingspan is over 11 feet wide. I mean, just imagine living life like that, you know, flying thousands and thousands of miles all by yourself.

I mean, that said, some of them are coming back to land to breed at the moment, and that's when they reveal a totally different side of their personalities. [Applause] [Music] How is it possible that life can come back from the dead? The island of South Georgia was the scene of one of the worst wildlife massacres in history, species driven to near extinction. The whaling stations were abandoned. This is an awe-inspiring story of how, if given the chance, nature can bounce back on a scale you're not going to believe.

My name's Bertie Gregory, and I'm a National Geographic wildlife filmmaker. [Music] This is Resurrection Island. This place is so much like Jurassic Park; I kind of feel like we're going to get picked off by a velociraptor at any moment. The only difference is the velociraptors are a lot fatter, a bit more grumpy, and they're called fur seals. Didn't seem very pleased to see us. [Music]

Look at that! Review! [Music] Don't call it Wanderer Ridge for nothing. The sky up here is filled with wonders, and they're just so at home in the wind. I mean, everything here is huge. The birds are huge, the ocean's huge, the mountains are huge, the wind is huge. It makes filming really difficult.

Whilst massive wind speeds would deter most from coming anywhere near Bird Island, it's exactly why these birds are here. They need the wind to thrive; it gives them the boost to get their giant bodies into the air. Whoa, coming in! Oh, it's like sitting on the end of a runway waiting for a 747 to come in.

For as graceful as these birds are in the air, their terrestrial landings, well, they're more like crash landings. This is the reason that they've come all the way back to land. Some of the adults coming back here are coming back to find their mate that they've been with for decades. But these guys haven't read before; they're first-time breeders. So they're kind of on a first date, and for that reason, they've got to do a bit of showing off.

They've got to make a good impression. At around 10 years of age, young males reach sexual maturity. They'll then take a stand on a nest and start trying to attract a mate, and they mate for life. So if an albatross can live 60 years, they don't want to just waste it on anyone. After all, it's a relationship that lasts longer than most human marriages.

The wandering albatross courtship has so many different layers to it, and you can see there's a lot of posturing, moving back and forth. They've got their wings out; it's a bit of build fencing where they tap their bills together. He's vibrating his beak; you hear that weird alien noise. And the other thing he's doing is sky calling when he points his head straight into the sky and makes that amazing screaming noise. [Music]

I love it when timing works out. [Music] [Applause] Once a pair start getting into it more and more, try to join the party. This is one of the most elaborate courtship rituals in the animal kingdom. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

After what could be years of courting, the albatross mates are finally ready to take their next step in life, starting a family. [Music] Yeah, that's it! [Music] [Music] Once the bond is formed, they'll soon learn to rely on each other for the rest of their lives. You know, it's so easy to get the wrong idea with these guys. You know, when you see them flying out over the open ocean, you think that they're just these lone rangers, but there's so much more to their lives than that.

[Music] They form this amazing long-term bond. Their relationship is all about dedication and partnership. Since they only lay one egg every two years, they put a huge amount of time and resources into raising just a single chick.

They divvy up the chores like building and maintaining their nest. Then, once the female has laid the egg, the pair will take turns incubating while the other heads out to sea for some lunch. Say, as far as Brazil, that's a 5,000-mile round trip, which they do in just two weeks!

Now, the key to traveling all that distance is the way that it flies. It does this amazing zigzagging pattern. What it's doing is it's turning up into the wind; it's gaining gravitational potential energy. It gains altitude. When it reaches the peak, it then turns in the direction that it wants to travel and gains kinetic energy.

It turns that potential energy into forward momentum, and then just as it's about to run out of height and clip the surface of the water, it turns back up into the wind and gains all that altitude again. And it just does that over and over again, so it can fly miles and miles and miles without ever needing to flap its wings. [Music]

Although this technique of dynamic soaring is the very thing that makes albatrosses the most well-traveled birds in the world, it also brings them into dangerous waters, where commercial fisheries practice unsafe long-line fishing methods. Albatrosses see the bait, they dive on it, and swallow the hook. And today, their populations are in peril.

But there is hope, and that's because with a few simple changes in fishing practices, we can avoid the albatross getting killed by these hooks. And that's been done with great success around here, at the island of South Georgia, where the bycatch has been reduced to pretty much zero. [Music]

Whilst this local success is great news, their ability to wander means that only with international cooperation can we ensure the future of the wandering albatross. [Music] [Music] You.

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