The Royal Society’s study of these animals, known to be monogamous and faithful: the greatest difficulty in obtaining food drives their separation
Even the pairs of albatrosses are in crisis. To shake the relations between these great seabirds – belonging to the Diomedeid family and made famous by Charles Baudelaire – are not stress or simple quarrels. These animals are, in fact, known to be monogamous and faithful: under normal conditions, we read on Guardian
, only 1-3% of them would separate from their chosen partner.
The climate change that forces the animals to move more and more in search of food, distancing themselves for long periods from their partners, makes the relations between albatrosses difficult. A discovery illustrated in a study in the journal The Royal Society, which comes from a 15-year research on a wild population of the Falkland Islands of about 15,550 specimens of black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys Temminck), the most widespread and common
. Researchers from the Universities of Lisbon, Montana and Exeter, together with those from the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute and the Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences of Portugal, have highlighted how the difficult environmental conditions they can interrupt the processes of reproduction, causing some pairs to separate that otherwise would have remained together. A couple unable to give birth to a chick is more prone to the possibility of separation. An eventuality that increases with the decrease of food available to the species, he explains Francesco Ventura, researcher at the University of Lisbon and co-author of the study (here the full research).
Generally, one reason for the breaking of ties between albatrosses is the failure to conceive of offspring. And, as the Bbc
, what surprised the researchers was, however, note how stress caused by the shortage of fish and from the most strenuous hunting trips led to the separation of 8% of the couples. The albatross population of is shrinking dramatically – by 5-10% every year – which is why the Royal Society has decided to investigate all the causes, in addition to those already known of the capture in trawl nets.
Here is the deepening: Faithful by nature, here are the animals that choose to stay forever in two.
November 25, 2021 (change November 26, 2021 | 4:49 pm)
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