News Highlight
Rare flight of Antarctic’s Light-mantled Albatross to Tamil Nadu coast intrigues researchers
Key Takeaways
- It is the first sighting record of the Light-mantled Albatross Pheobetria palpebrate from Rameswaram island in Southern India.
- This is an unusual record from the region as it has not previously been recorded from either South Asia or the Oriental region.
Light-mantled Albatross
- The Light-mantled Albatross (also known as the Light-mantled Sooty Albatross) is a beautifully plumaged, small albatross from the southern oceans.
- They breed on sub-arctic islands in multiple locations across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
- Distribution
- The Light-mantled Albatross has a circumpolar pelagic distribution in the Southern Ocean
- Conservation status
- IUCN Redlist: Near Threatened
- Convention on Migratory Species (CMS): Listed in Appendix II
- Population Trend: Decreasing
- Light-mantled Albatross has a worldwide population of 21,600 breeding pairs, according to an estimate in 1998.
- Migration
- Breeds on a number of sub-arctic islands in the far southern Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand.
What triggers the change in the path of Light-mantled Albatross?
- Changes in the wind pattern due to global warming affect birds like albatross that are known to be on the move, use the wind and save their energy during flights.
- Slight changes in the temperature can cause drastic changes in the wind pattern, and birds could land in far-away places unfamiliar to them.
Initiatives to conserve migratory birds
- Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) or the Bonn Convention:
- It is an intergovernmental treaty, concluded under the aegis of UNEP
- CMS is the only global and UN-based intergovernmental organisation established exclusively for the conservation and management of terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range.
- India has been a party to the CMS since 1983
- “National Action Plan (NAP) for Conservation of Migratory birds” (2018-23)
- The environment ministry brought out NAP for Conservation of Migratory Birds works for specific actions required to ensure healthy populations of the MigratorySpecies in India.
- World Migratory Bird Day
- World Migratory Bird Day on May 9th was created to raise awareness and to highlight the need for urgent action to conserve the wetlands which are the essential stepping stones along the world’s great migratory routes – and provide vital ecosystem services for millions of people.
- Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972
- Rare and endangered species of birds, including migratory birds, are included in Schedule-I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 thereby according to the highest degree of protection
- Important habitats of birds, including migratory birds, have been notified as Protected Areas under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 for better conservation and protection of birds and their habitats.
Pic Courtesy: antarctica.gov.au
Content Source: The Hindu