Wandering Albatross

The wandering albatross is one of the greatest travellers in the whole animal world. It is a huge white seabird that lives far out over the cold, windy Southern Ocean near the bottom of the world. Its most amazing feature is its wings: they are longer than those of any other bird alive today.

Stretched out wingtip to wingtip, a wandering albatross can measure about three metres across. Those enormous wings are perfect for gliding. Instead of flapping hard, the albatross tilts and leans on the ocean wind, sailing along for hours using hardly any energy at all. It can cross whole oceans this way, sometimes staying at sea for months or even years between visits to land.

Out on the water, the albatross snaps up squid and fish from near the surface. It can settle on the sea to feed and rest, bobbing on the waves like a big white duck, then spread its wings and lift off again into the wind. It feeds both by day and by night whenever there is food to find.

Wandering albatrosses come to land only to raise their chicks, gathering on lonely islands scattered through the Southern Ocean. A pair takes great care of their single chick, and raising it takes so long that most pairs nest only once every two years. These birds also live for a very long time, sometimes past sixty years of age.

Today there are fewer wandering albatrosses than there once were, so they are listed as vulnerable. Their biggest trouble is fishing lines: the birds try to grab bait from long fishing lines and can get caught on the hooks. Fishing crews are now using clever tricks, like setting lines at night and adding weights, to keep the albatrosses safe so these ocean wanderers can keep sailing the wind.