Albatross in 2001: ACAP era

What did Coleridge actually do to the bird? The 1798 Rime made killing an albatross a moral crime. The poem outran the biology and still titles newspaper bycatch stories. The northern royal albatross colony near Dunedin is a mainland breeding site with public hides — rare for a family that usually needs remote islands.

Do mice really eat albatross chicks? On Gough and some other islands, introduced house mice attack chicks of albatrosses and petrels. Eradication attempts are now as central as hook rules. The atoll is also the world’s largest Laysan albatross colony. Plastic and lead paint joined the WWII ruins as management files.

How many albatross species are threatened? BirdLife assessments have long placed a majority of Diomedeidae in threatened categories — an unusual concentration for a small family. Albatross is one of 24 types in this animals atlas. The pages treat it as a full system -- history, anatomy, operating principles, culture, icons, future pressure and market shape -- not a ranking of a best species.