Subject: Re: Sleeping Albatrosses (long)
Date: Feb 22 17:24:07 1996
From: PAGODROMA at aol.com - PAGODROMA at aol.com


From: Jim (Rose Petersen) 96-02-21:

>Anyway, do
>albatrosses during their months at sea land on the ocean? How do they
>sleep? If they land on the ocean to sleep, don't they get scarfed up by a
>sea predator, or drowned by a crashing wave? Do they sleep in flight?

I've been kind of waiting for someone to step up and say what would seem like
the obvious. None-the-less, it's still a good question. I think the answer
is how we, from the human perspective, may define 'sleep' and I suspect Byron
Butler may well have some insightful, resourceful, and scholarly comments.
Help us out Byron, or someone else on 'SEABIRD-L'.

With some 80,000 hours at sea around the world over the past 25 years
involved in fisheries, seabird, and cetacean research, and with seabirds
being at least of very great ancillary interest, I can say that all seabirds,
including albatross 'sleep' in the sense that they are resting on the water,
often drifting quiety with their bills tucked under their wing, much like we
see shorebirds and waterfowl. None-the-less, that 'sleep' is a shallow one
as survival means maintaining a certain level of continual vigilence for
danger.

We've all seen shore and water birds in this manner, from a distance eyes
even often closed, until a slight movement or some disturbance, e.g. as when
we may approach a bit closer. There is safety in numbers. Individuals in
flocks of shore and waterbirds and rafts of storm petrels can rest more easy
in that there are always a few that are more 'awake' than others. At least
that's my perception.

Digressing slightly, just because I thought it interesting: Last summer, I
was studying a male white-tailed ptarmigan for several hours up on alpine
slopes of Mt. Rainier, WA, when a jet, very high up, but a speck to my eye
flew over, and yet that bird crouched down eyeing it very closely. The
acuity in eyesight in various bird species could make for another interesting
thread here. (hence this posting cc'd to other BB's).

I don't believe that albatross or other seabird species 'sleep' on the wing,
although I've heard it suggested for tropicbirds, soaring on thermals way up
there in the cumulus. Theo Hofmann's post on satellite tracking of Wandering
Albatross is very interesting. Thanks.

>You may be interested in a study by satellite tracking of Wandering
>Albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) by Jouventin and Weimerskirch, which was
>published in "Nature" vol. 343, pp.746-748 (1990) (issue of 22 February).
>
>The authors tracked foraging trips of six male Wandering Albatrosses by
>satellite telemetry. They found that these birds covered between 3,600
>and 10,000 km in single foraging trips. Of interest in connection with
>the question you raised about sleeping: These six birds were active day
>and night, but the distances covered at night were relatively
>short, compared to their day-time travel. They were only stationary at
night,
>but never for more than 1.6 hours. Their stops rarely exceeded
>one hour. The study does not answer the question whether they slept when
>they were at rest, or - highly unlikely (?) - whether they slept on the
>wing. The single foraging trips lasted from 3 days to 28 days for the six
>birds observed. Could an albatross go without sleep for 28 days?

I have not seen this article or know anything about this study, age of birds
tracked, and what season. Reference to 'foraging trips' suggests that these
particular individuals were adults making runs back and forth to their
breeding sites to change off incubation responsibilities and/or feed young.
Since it takes up to 12 years for Wandering Albatross to reach sexual
maturity, this means that there are a lot of birds remaining at sea,
sometimes for years at a time. Some immature and sub-adults still make
landfall during the breeding season to indulge or practice in the various
courtship rituals.

Certainly, a lot of these immature, sub-adult, and non-breeders remaining at
sea are not restricted to limiting their rest or 'sleep' time to the hours of
darkness regardless of season, as I've observed this often during the day. I
am reminded of an experience in October 1983, in the Gulf of Alaska, 120 nm E
of Kodiak, onboard a South Korean long line fishing vessel, targeting
sablefish (black cod). The fish were gutted and beheaded as they came
onboard, and offal dumped over the side, much to the ravenous delight of the
thousands of fulmars, hundreds of albatross, and other seabirds, and I must
not forget the 5 sperm whales which lingered along side the ship for a week
in the midst of this frenzy (day & night, feeding and surfacing in a slick
eerie blue/green glowing sea reflecting the Alaskan Aurora overhead is a
living memory I shall take to the grave -- but I digress again -- sorry,
can't help it when something inspires me to reminisce about some very special
anecdotal experience).

The albatross were mostly active only during the day, and mostly seemed to
disappear at night. There were always a few around and numbers steadily
increased all through October. At first light on the morning of 20 October
1983, I was absolutely staggered by the numbers of albatrosses all over the
slick calm sea surface (yes, it is that way sometimes in the notorious Gulf)
within a 3-mile radius of the fishing vessel in tight little rafts of 25, 50,
100, hundreds. A careful count at that time resulted in ~3000 black-footed,
~600 Laysan, and 7 short-tailed (latter all in one flock). As daylight
progressed, the birds picked up and joined the feeding mass around the boat.
So, I figured they must have been out there much of the night, resting, or
'sleeping' as it were.

Apologies if I related this tale before. I did somewhere before my mail
program crashed and lost the BB or individual to whom or where it went.

Passerines encountered at sea that find refuge during perhaps misguided
migration are often exhausted, and do appear to sleep, and sleep soundly.
I'm recalling a Blackpoll Warbler that dropped onto the flying bridge of a
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter, a platform from which I was doing cetacean, seabird,
and turtle work, one Fall back in 1980 or so, between Norfolk, VA, and
Bermuda. If such passerines are not so weakened beyond recovery, they'll
leave after they've 'napped' for awhile. That was the case with this little
bugger. After about 3 or 4 hours of sound sleep, shuttering, and looking
like eminent death, he recovered, perked up, lively, and eventually took off
strongly to the south. I've been there in that comatose state sometimes, so
I could kind of relate. :)

Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue, WA, USA