A family in trouble

New Zealand has 11 breeding albatross species - half of the recognised world total. Albatrosses are considered to be among the most endangered bird family in the world.

Some 18 species - 82 per cent - have a threatened status. In contrast, the figure for all birds is 12 per cent.

The seabird has stirred imaginations for centuries. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, tells how a sailor faces the eternal curse of his dying crew for killing with a crossbow "the harmless albatross".

The bird's survival was once threatened by egg and feather collectors, and later guano traders.

Its fate today rests with commercial fishing practices, as the birds' eagerness to follow vessels and swoop on scraps and baited hooks puts them in harm's way.

Ashore, albatrosses face other threats such as disease, pests and human capture. The impact of climate change could also affect the remote locations where many species breed as temperature changes impact on food supplies.

The state of New Zealand's species has improved since the revision of the Chatham albatross from "critically endangered" to "vulnerable" on a global scale of risk to their survival. In that positive shift the bird joins its New Zealand cousins the Antipodean, Southern royal, Salvin's and Campbell albatrosses.

The species now most at risk is the Northern royal albatross, which nest at Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, one of the world's most accessible mainland breeding sites.

The small Otago colony - first documented in 1920 - is unusual in that is a case of birds colonising a site where there were no other albatrosses.

Most Northern royals breed on islands in the Chathams group. There are about 7000 breeding pairs remaining.

Like other albatrosses, the Toroa - as the Northern royal is known - is a great flyer. Its favoured route takes it around the South Pole.

Tracking devices have shown them to be capable of covering as much as 1800km in a single day - part of which is spent resting on the ocean. Speeds of 80 to 110km/h are reached by these magnificent flyers.

The last New Zealand bird to improve its status was the Buller's albatross, which can be found on the Snares Islands, 200km south of Invercargill.

Buller's and the White-capped albatross - which also breeds on New Zealand's Sub-Antarctic Islands - are both considered "near threatened".