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95-424: True-Life Adventures is a series of short and full-length nature documentary films released by Walt Disney Studios between the years 1948 and 1960. The first seven films released were thirty-minute shorts, with the subsequent seven films being full features. The series won eight Academy Awards for the studio, including five for Best Two Reel Live Action Short and three for Best Documentary Feature . Some of

190-543: A sister taxon to the great albatrosses, while the sooty albatrosses are considered closer to the mollymawks. The taxonomy of the albatross group has been a source of much debate. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy places seabirds, birds of prey , and many others in a greatly enlarged order, the Ciconiiformes , whereas the ornithological organisations in North America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand retain

285-464: A burden or facing an obstacle is said to have "an albatross around his neck", the punishment given to the mariner who killed the albatross. A widespread myth holds that sailors believe shooting or harming an albatross is disastrous, due in part to the poem; in truth, sailors regularly killed and ate them, as reported by James Cook in 1772. However, other sailors reportedly caught the birds but let them free again, possibly believing that albatrosses were

380-600: A case, and quite certainly the supposed giant albatross femur from the Early Pleistocene Dainichi Formation at Kakegawa , Japan , actually is from one of the last pseudotooth birds. Aldiomedes angustirostris was a uniquely narrow-beaked species from the Pliocene of New Zealand. The albatrosses are a group of large to very large birds; they are the largest of the Procellariiformes. The bill

475-633: A colony of short-tailed albatrosses have been uncovered on the island of Bermuda , and the majority of fossil albatrosses from the North Atlantic have been of the genus Phoebastria (the North Pacific albatrosses); one, Phoebastria anglica , has been found in deposits in both North Carolina and England . Due to convergent evolution in particular of the leg and foot bones, remains of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds (Pelagornithidae) may be mistaken for those of extinct albatrosses; Manu may be such

570-557: A colony prior to beginning to breed, spending many years practising the elaborate breeding rituals and "dances" for which the family is famous. Birds arriving back at the colony for the first time already have the stereotyped behaviours that compose albatross language, but can neither "read" that behaviour as exhibited by other birds nor respond appropriately. The repertoire of behaviour involves synchronised performances of various actions such as preening , pointing, calling, bill clacking, staring, and combinations of such behaviours (such as

665-645: A famous example, Walt Disney 's White Wilderness (1958), lemmings were herded to their deaths from a cliff by the filmmakers. Examples also occur in modern nature documentaries, such as Hidden Kingdoms (2014) and Blue Planet II (2017), indicating that such practices are still routine. Due to the difficulties of recording sounds on locations, it is common for nature documentary makers to record sounds in post-production using Foley and to use sound effect libraries. Compositing and computer-generated imagery are also sometimes used to construct shots. Wild animals are often filmed over weeks or months, so

760-544: A full-length documentary film derived from 13 True-Life Adventures films. It was written and directed by James Algar and narrated by Winston Hibler . The films were among the earliest production experience for Roy E. Disney . This series was the launching pad for Disney's then-new distributor, the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company, Inc. Interstitial animated segments are included, and some filmed sequences are set to music . Ub Iwerks blew up

855-583: A human presenter, the role varies widely, ranging from explanatory voice-overs to extensive interaction or even confrontation with animals. Most nature documentaries are made for television and are usually of 45 to 50 minutes duration, but some are made as full-length cinematic presentations. Such films include: In addition, the BBC 's The Blue Planet and Planet Earth series have both been adapted by BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media for theatrical release. In some cases, nature documentaries are produced in

950-581: A jungle within a few minutes, so that the places seem to be teeming with life. You distort size by using close-up lenses. And you distort sound. What the filmmaker is trying to do is to convey a particular experience. … The viewer has to trust in the good faith of the filmmaker. Nature documentaries have been criticized for leaving viewers with the impression that wild animals survived and thrived after encounters with predators, even when they sustain potentially life-threatening injuries. They also cut away from particularly violent encounters, or attempt to downplay

1045-410: A run up to allow enough air to move under the wing to provide lift . The dynamic soaring of albatrosses has provided inspiration to airplane designers; German aerospace engineer Johannes Traugott and colleagues have charted the albatross's nuanced flight pattern and are looking for ways to apply this to aircraft, especially in the area of drones and unmanned aircraft . Most albatrosses range in

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1140-603: A scientific and educational approach, some anthropomorphise their subjects or present animals purely for the viewer's pleasure. In a few instances, they are in presented in ethnographic film formats and contain stories that involve humans and their relationships with the natural world, as in Nanook of the North (1922), The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003), and Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925). Although almost all have

1235-417: A serious decline in fish stocks in many regions largely due to overfishing ; and by longline fishing . Longline fisheries pose the greatest threat, as feeding birds are attracted to the bait , become hooked on the lines, and drown. Identified stakeholders such as governments, conservation organisations, and people in the fishing industry are all working toward reducing this phenomenon. The name "Albatross"

1330-669: A shoulder-lock, a sheet of tendon that locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept outstretched without any muscle expenditure, a morphological adaptation they share with the giant petrels. Albatrosses combine these soaring techniques with the use of predictable weather systems; albatrosses in the Southern Hemisphere flying north from their colonies take a clockwise route, and those flying south fly counterclockwise . Albatrosses are so well adapted to this lifestyle that their heart rates while flying are close to their basal heart rate when resting. This efficiency

1425-495: A similar manner to other nature documentaries. The shows ( Walking with Dinosaurs , Walking with Beasts , and Walking with Monsters ) had three spinoffs, two of which featured Nigel Marven : Chased by Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy . Robert Winston presented Walking with Cavemen . Most nature documentary films or television series focus on a particular species , ecosystem , or scientific idea (such as evolution ). Although most take

1520-402: A single hole has been termed scoring an " albatross ", as a continuation on the birdie and eagle theme. The 19th track of Taylor Swift 's eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department is titled "The Albatross". The Māori used the wing bones of the albatross to carve flutes . In Hawaiian mythology , Laysan albatrosses are considered aumakua , being a sacred manifestation of

1615-633: A studio-based BBC magazine-program with filmed inserts, hosted by Sir Peter Scott from 1955 to 1981. The first 50-minute weekly documentary series, The World About Us , began on BBC2 in 1967 with a color installment from the French filmmaker Haroun Tazieff, called "Volcano". Around 1982, the series changed its title to The Natural World , which the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol continued to produce as of 2023 . In 1961, Anglia Television produced

1710-513: A year to raise a chick from laying to fledging . Albatrosses lay a single subelliptical egg , white with reddish-brown spots, in a breeding season; if the egg is lost to predators or accidentally broken, then no further breeding attempts are made that year. The larger eggs weigh from 200 to 510 g (7.1 to 18.0 oz). The "divorce" of a pair is a rare occurrence, due to the diminished lifetime reproductive success it causes, and usually happens only after several years of breeding failure. All

1805-476: Is a rodent – jealous maybe?" In 2007, Disney established a new nature film label called Disneynature , which produces feature films similar to the True-Life Adventures series. In March 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox , including the nature-themed National Geographic Films . Nature documentary Robert J. Flaherty 's 1922 film Nanook of the North is typically cited as

1900-556: Is also believed to be searching for a mate, having been recorded from Germany , Scandinavia and RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, England. The use of satellite tracking is teaching scientists a great deal about the way albatrosses range across the ocean to find food. They undertake no annual migration , but disperse widely after breeding; Southern Hemisphere species often undertake circumpolar trips. Evidence also exists of separate ranges for different species at sea. A comparison of

1995-721: Is derived from the Arabic al-qādūs or al-ḡaṭṭās (a pelican ; literally, " the diver "), which travelled to English via the Portuguese form Alcatraz (" gannet "), which is also the origin of the name of the former prison Alcatraz . The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the word Alcatraz was originally applied to the frigatebird ; the modification to albatross was perhaps influenced by Latin Albus , meaning "white", in contrast to frigatebirds, which are black. They were once commonly known as goonie birds or gooney birds, particularly those of

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2090-510: Is large enough to defend and thermoregulate itself. During this period, the parents feed the chick small meals when they relieve each other from duty. After the brooding period is over, the chick is fed in regular intervals by both parents. The parents adopt alternative patterns of short and long foraging trips, providing meals that weigh around 12% of their body weight (around 600 g, or 21 oz). The meals are composed of fresh squid, fish, and krill, as well as stomach oil , an energy -rich food that

2185-423: Is large, strong, and sharp-edged, with the upper mandible terminating in a large hook. This bill is composed of several horny plates, and along the sides are the two "tubes", long nostrils that give the order its former name (Tubinares, or tubenoses). The tubes of all albatrosses are along the sides of the bill, unlike the rest of the Procellariiformes, where the tubes run along the top of the bill. These tubes allow

2280-635: Is lighter to carry than undigested prey items. This oil is created in a stomach organ known as a proventriculus from digested prey items by most Procellariiformes, and gives them their distinctive musty smell. Albatross chicks take a long time to fledge. In the case of the great albatrosses, it can take up to 280 days; even for the smaller albatrosses, it takes between 140 and 170 days. Like many seabirds, albatross chicks will gain enough weight to be heavier than their parents, and prior to fledging, they use these reserves to build up body condition (particularly growing all their flight feathers), usually fledging at

2375-505: Is predominantly cephalopods , fish , crustaceans , and offal (organ meat), although they also scavenge carrion and feed on other zooplankton . For most species, a comprehensive understanding of diet is known for only the breeding season, when the albatrosses regularly return to land and study is possible. The importance of each of these food sources varies from species to species, and even from population to population; some concentrate on squid alone, others take more krill or fish. Of

2470-569: Is rare in albatrosses, largely due to the low incidence of breeding-site vagrancy. Albatrosses are described in the Handbook of World Birds as "the most legendary of all birds". An albatross is the central emblem in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge , representing the innocence and beauty of God's creation. The albatross metaphor is derived from this poem; someone bearing

2565-415: Is so strong that a study of Laysan albatrosses showed that the average distance between hatching site and the site where a bird established its own territory was 22 m (72 ft). Albatrosses live much longer than other birds; they delay breeding for longer and invest more effort into fewer young. Most species survive upwards of 50 years, the oldest recorded being a Laysan albatross named Wisdom that

2660-665: Is such that the most energetically demanding aspect of a foraging trip is not the distance covered, but the landings, take-offs and hunting they undertake having found a food source. A common assumption is that Albatrosses must be able to sleep in flight, although no direct evidence has ever been obtained. This efficient long-distance travelling underlies the albatross's success as a long-distance forager, covering great distances and expending little energy looking for patchily distributed food sources. Their adaptation to gliding flight makes them dependent on wind and waves, but their long wings are ill-suited to powered flight and most species lack

2755-519: Is the reason albatrosses are for the most part confined to higher latitudes; being unsuited to sustained flapping flight makes crossing the doldrums extremely difficult. The exception, the waved albatross, is able to live in the equatorial waters around the Galápagos Islands because of the cool waters of the Humboldt Current and the resulting winds. Why the albatrosses became extinct in

2850-513: The 16 mm film to 35 mm for theatrical projection and provided some special effects. The series won eight Academy Awards for the studio including five Best Two Reel Live Action Short awards for Seal Island , In Beaver Valley , Nature's Half Acre , Water Birds , and Bear Country , and three Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature awards for The Living Desert , The Vanishing Prairie and White Wilderness . Television episodes from Disney's anthology TV series focus on

2945-471: The American Museum of Natural History (1996) and other researchers around the world studied the mitochondrial DNA of all 14 accepted species, finding four, not two, monophyletic groups within the albatrosses. They proposed the resurrection of two of the old genus names, Phoebastria for the North Pacific albatrosses and Thalassarche for the mollymawks, with the great albatrosses retaining Diomedea and

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3040-565: The National Education Association honored him with the American Education Award. Animators from Walt Disney Productions used film from the series as reference material for a wide range of animals. During the production of The Rescuers (1977), animator Ollie Johnston cited footage from the series—showing the clumsiness of albatross take-offs and landings—as inspiration for the mice's mode of transportation in

3135-808: The North Atlantic is unknown for certain, although rising sea levels due to an interglacial warming period are thought to have submerged the site of a short-tailed albatross colony that has been excavated in Bermuda. Some southern species have occasionally turned up as vagrants in the North Atlantic and can become exiled, remaining there for decades. One of these exiles, a black-browed albatross named Albert has been observed travelling to gannet colonies in Scotland for at least 50 years in an attempt to breed. Another black-browed albatross nicknamed Albie has been frequently observed across Northern Europe since 2014, and

3230-535: The Tristan albatross were distinct from the wandering albatross , per Robertson and Nunn, but found that the suggested Gibson's albatross , Diomedea gibsoni , was not distinct from the Antipodean albatross. For the most part, an interim taxonomy of 21 species is accepted by ITIS and many other researchers, though by no means all—in 2004 Penhallurick and Wink called for the number of species to be reduced to 13 (including

3325-460: The black-browed albatross or the grey-headed albatross , is rich with smaller species of squid that tend to sink after death, and scavenging is not assumed to play a large role in their diet. The waved albatross has been observed practising kleptoparasitism , harassing boobies to steal their food, making it the only member of its order to do so regularly. Until recently, albatrosses were thought to be predominantly surface feeders, swimming at

3420-702: The short subject form and are subsequently screened in theaters or broadcast on television. Often they are about the relationship between humans and nature. Notable examples include: Every two years the Wildscreen Trust, of Bristol in the UK presents the Panda Awards for nature documentaries. The "naturalness" of nature documentaries has been disputed. Some, particularly those involving animals, have included footage of staged events that appear "natural" while actually contrived by filmmakers or occurring in captivity. In

3515-465: The southern royal albatross is almost completely white except for the ends and trailing edges of the wings in fully mature males, while the Amsterdam albatross has an almost juvenile-like breeding plumage with a great deal of brown, particularly a strong brown band around the chest. Several species of mollymawks and North Pacific albatrosses have face markings like eye patches or have grey or yellow on

3610-401: The suffering endured by the individual animal, by appealing to concepts such as the " balance of nature " and "the good of the herd". Among the many notable filmmakers, scientists, and presenters who have contributed to the medium include: Sir David Attenborough 's contributions to conservation are widely regarded, and his television programs have been seen by millions of people throughout

3705-468: The 14 then accepted. This expanded taxonomy elevated many established subspecies to full species, but was criticised for not using, in every case, peer reviewed information to justify the splits. Since then, further studies have in some instances supported or disproved the splits; a 2004 paper analysing the mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites agreed with the conclusion that the Antipodean albatross and

3800-673: The Italian film Sesto Continente ( The Sixth Continent ) and the French film Le Monde du silence ( The Silent World ). Directed by Folco Quilici Sesto Continente was shot in 1952 and first exhibited to Italian audiences in 1954. The Silent World , shot in 1954 and 1955 by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle , was first released in 1956. In 1954, the BBC started airing Zoo Quest , featuring David Attenborough . Other early nature documentaries include Fur and Feathers shown on CBC from 1955 to 1956 and hosted by Ian McTaggart-Cowan ., and Look ,

3895-590: The Latin word procella meaning "a violent wind" or "a storm". The "albatross" designation comprises between 13 and 24 species (the number is still a matter of some debate, with 21 being the most commonly accepted number) in four genera. These genera are the great albatrosses ( Diomedea ), the mollymawks ( Thalassarche ), the North Pacific albatrosses ( Phoebastria ), and the sooty albatrosses or sooties ( Phoebetria ). The North Pacific albatrosses are considered to be

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3990-534: The North Pacific. In the Southern Hemisphere, the name mollymawk is still well established in some areas, which is a corrupted form of malle-mugge , an old Dutch name for the northern fulmar . The name Diomedea , assigned to the albatrosses by Linnaeus , references the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. Finally, the name for the order, Procellariiformes, comes from

4085-437: The Procellariiformes, it acts as a salt gland . Scientists are uncertain as to its exact processes, but do know in general terms that it removes salt by secreting a 5% saline solution that drips out of their noses or is forcibly ejected. The adult plumage of most of the albatrosses is usually some variation of dark upper-wing and back with white undersides, often compared to that of a gull . The extent of colouration varies:

4180-404: The Procellariiformes, making them and the giant petrels the only members of that order that can walk well on land. Albatrosses, along with all Procellariiformes, must excrete the salts they ingest in drinking sea water and eating marine invertebrates. All birds have an enlarged nasal gland at the base of the bill, above their eyes. This gland is inactive in species that do not require it, but in

4275-461: The Southern Hemisphere from Antarctica to Australia , South Africa , and South America . The exceptions to this are the four North Pacific albatrosses, of which three occur exclusively in the North Pacific, from Hawaii to Japan, California, and Alaska; and one, the waved albatross , breeds in the Galápagos Islands and feeds off the coast of South America. The need for wind to enable gliding

4370-511: The air to snatch prey. Albatrosses are colonial , usually nesting on isolated islands; where colonies are on larger landmasses, they are found on exposed headlands with good approaches from the sea in several directions, like the colony on the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin , New Zealand. Many Buller's albatrosses and black-footed albatrosses nest under trees in open forest. Colonies vary from

4465-458: The albatrosses to measure the exact airspeed in flight; the nostrils are analogous to the pitot tubes in modern aircraft. The albatross needs accurate airspeed measurement to perform dynamic soaring . Like other Procellariiformes, they use their uniquely developed sense of smell to locate potential food sources, whereas most birds depend on eyesight. The feet have no hind toe and the three anterior toes are completely webbed. The legs are strong for

4560-658: The ancestors, and quite possibly also the sacred bird of Kāne . Japanese mythology , by contrast, refers to the short-tailed albatross as ahodori , "fool bird", due to its habit of disregarding terrestrial predators, making it easy prey for feather collectors. Albatrosses are popular birds for birdwatchers , and their colonies are popular destinations for ecotourists . Regular birdwatching trips are taken out of many coastal towns and cities, such as Monterey , Dunedin , Kaikōura , Wollongong , Sydney , Port Fairy , Hobart , and Cape Town , to see pelagic seabirds . Albatrosses are easily attracted to these sightseeing boats by

4655-441: The audience to form an emotional connection with the subject and to root for their survival when they encounter a predator . In 1984, David Attenborough stated: There is precious little that is natural … in any film. You distort speed if you want to show things like plants growing, or look in detail at the way an animal moves. You distort light levels. You distort distribution, in the sense that you see dozens of different species in

4750-685: The biological family Diomedeidae , are large seabirds related to the procellariids , storm petrels , and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific . They are absent from the North Atlantic , although fossil remains of short-tailed albatross show they once lived there up to the Pleistocene , and occasional vagrants are found. Great albatrosses are among

4845-537: The classification of albatrosses, they were lumped into two genera, Phoebetria (the sooty albatrosses, which most closely seemed to resemble the procellarids and were at the time considered "primitive" ) and Diomedea (the rest). Though a case was made for the simplification of the family (particularly the nomenclature), the classification was based on the morphological analysis by Elliott Coues in 1866, and paid little attention to more recent studies and even ignored some of Coues's suggestions. Research by Gary Nunn of

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4940-574: The deployment of fish oil and burley into the sea. Visits to colonies can be very popular; the northern royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Head in Dunedin, New Zealand, attracts 40,000 visitors a year. In spite of often being accorded legendary status, albatrosses have not escaped either indirect or direct pressure from humans. Early encounters with albatrosses by Polynesians and Aleuts resulted in hunting and in some cases extirpation from some islands (such as Easter Island ). As Europeans began sailing

5035-409: The egg in stints that last between one day and three weeks. Incubation lasts around 70 to 80 days (longer for the larger albatrosses), the longest incubation period of any bird. It can be an energetically demanding process, with the adult losing as much as 83 g (2.9 oz) of body weight a day. After hatching, the chick, which is semi- altricial , is brooded and guarded for three weeks until it

5130-481: The family and none appear to be particularly close to the living forms. They are Murunkus (Middle Eocene of Uzbekistan ), Manu (early Oligocene of New Zealand ), and an undescribed form from the Late Oligocene of South Carolina . The oldest widely accepted fossil albatross is Tydea septentrionalis from the early Oligocene of Belgium. Diomedavus knapptonensis is smaller than all extant albatrosses and

5225-443: The feather trade, leading to the near-extinction of the short-tailed albatross. Of the 22 albatross species recognised by IUCN on their Red List , 15 are threatened with extinction , that is, Critically Endangered ( Tristan albatross and waved albatross and Amsterdam albatross), Endangered (7 species), or Vulnerable (6 species). Six further species are considered as Near Threatened and only one of Least Concern . One of

5320-437: The features were re-edited into educational shorts between 1968 and 1975. The latter year saw the release of The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures , a compilation film derived from the series. Additional educational shorts edited from two or more films were released under a " Nature's Living Album " banner, including: On October 8, 1975, Disney theatrically released The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures ,

5415-508: The films are hosted on Disney's streaming platform Disney+ , although as of March 2022, some had not yet been added to the service in the United States, including Seal Island and White Wilderness . Although critics denounced the series' anthropomorphizing of animals, educators honored the True-Life Adventures films. In 1954, the professional teacher organization Phi Delta Kappa International awarded Walt Disney its Education Award, and

5510-690: The films, and it inspired a daily panel comic strip that was distributed from 1955 to 1973 and drawn by George Wheeler. Several of the films were adapted in comic book format as one-shots in Dell Comics ' Four Color series. All of the True-Life Adventures have been released on 4 double- DVD sets as part of the Walt Disney Legacy Collection , which launched December 5, 2006. Disc 1 Disc 2 Bonus Features Disc 1 Disc 2 Bonus features Disc 1 Disc 2 Bonus features Disc 1 Disc 2 Bonus Features Many of

5605-529: The first feature-length documentary. Decades later, Walt Disney Productions pioneered the serial theatrical release of nature-documentaries with its production of the True-Life Adventures series, a collection of fourteen full length and short subject nature films from 1948 to 1960. Prominent among those were The Living Desert (1953) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954), both written and directed by James Algar . The first full-length nature-documentary films pioneering colour underwater cinematography were

5700-497: The first of the award-winning Survival series. Between 1974 and 1980, the Spanish nature documentary television series El Hombre y la Tierra (The Man and the Earth), produced by TVE and presented by naturalist Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente used 35 mm film, which posed significant logistic and technical challenges at the time. The show gained international recognition. During

5795-448: The footage must be condensed to form a narrative that appears to take place over a short space of time. Such narratives are also constructed to be as compelling as possible—rather than necessarily as a reflection of reality—and make frequent use of voice-overs, combined with emotional and intense music to maximise the audience's engagement with the content. One common technique is to follow the "story" of one particular animal, encouraging

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5890-579: The foraging niches of two related species that breed on Campbell Island , the Campbell albatross and the grey-headed albatross , showed the Campbell albatross primarily fed over the Campbell Plateau , whereas the grey-headed albatross fed in more pelagic , oceanic waters. Wandering albatrosses also react strongly to bathymetry , feeding only in waters deeper than 1,000 metres (3,000 ft); so rigidly did

5985-401: The head and nape. Three albatross species, the black-footed albatross and the two sooty albatrosses , vary completely from the usual patterns and are almost entirely dark brown (or dark grey in places in the case of the light-mantled albatross ). Albatrosses take several years to get their full adult breeding plumage. The wingspans of the largest great albatrosses (genus Diomedea ) are

6080-536: The largest of flying birds, with wingspans reaching up to 2.5–3.5 metres (8.2–11.5 ft) and bodies over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length. The albatrosses are usually regarded as falling into four genera , but disagreement exists over the number of species . Albatrosses are highly efficient in the air, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring to cover great distances with little exertion. They feed on squid , fish , and krill by either scavenging, surface seizing, or diving. Albatrosses are colonial , nesting for

6175-478: The largest of any bird, exceeding 3.40 m (11.2 ft), although the other species' wingspans are considerably smaller, at as low as 1.75 m (5.7 ft). The wings are stiff and cambered, with thickened, streamlined leading edges. Albatrosses travel long distances with two techniques used by many long-winged seabirds – dynamic soaring and slope soaring . Dynamic soaring involves repeatedly rising into wind and descending downwind, thus gaining energy from

6270-561: The late 1970s and early 1980s, several other television companies round the world set up their own specialized natural-history departments, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne , Australia and TVNZ 's unit in Dunedin , New Zealand — both still in existence, the latter having changed its name to " NHNZ ". ITV 's contribution to the genre, Survival , became a prolific series of single films. It

6365-577: The levelling and clearing of land to eliminate updrafts, and the destruction of annual nesting sites. Tall structures such as traffic control and radio towers killed 3000 birds in flight collisions during 1964–1965 before the towers were taken down. Closure of Naval Air Facility Midway in 1993 eliminated the problem of collisions with military aircraft. By 2008, it was noted that reduction in human activity had helped reduce bird deaths, though lead paint pollution near military buildings continued to poison birds by ingestion. Albatross plumes were popular in

6460-509: The lumping of the Amsterdam albatross with the wandering albatross ), although this paper was itself controversial. Sibley and Ahlquist's molecular study of the evolution of the bird families has put the radiation of the Procellariiformes in the Oligocene period 35–30 million years ago (Mya), though this group probably originated earlier, with a fossil sometimes attributed to

6555-459: The main threats is commercial longline fishing , as the albatrosses and other seabirds —which will readily feed on offal—are attracted to the set bait, become hooked on the lines and drown. An estimated 100,000 albatross per year are killed in this fashion. Unregulated pirate fisheries exacerbate the problem. A study showed that potentially illegal longline fishing activities are highly concentrated in areas of illegally-caught fish species, and

6650-875: The more traditional order Procellariiformes . The albatrosses can be separated from the other Procellariiformes both genetically and through morphological characteristics, size, their legs, and the arrangement of their nasal tubes (see below: Morphology and flight ). Within the family, the assignment of genera has been debated for over 100 years. Originally placed into a single genus, Diomedea , they were rearranged by Reichenbach into four different genera in 1852, then lumped back together and split apart again several times, acquiring 12 different genus names in total (though never more than eight at one time) by 1965 ( Diomedea , Phoebastria , Thalassarche , Phoebetria , Thalassageron , Diomedella , Nealbatrus , Rhothonia , Julietata , Galapagornis , Laysanornis , and Penthirenia ). By 1965, in an attempt to bring some order back to

6745-400: The most part on remote oceanic islands, often with several species nesting together. Pair bonds between males and females form over several years, with the use of "ritualised dances", and last for the life of the pair. A breeding season can take over a year from laying to fledging , with a single egg laid in each breeding attempt. A Laysan albatross , named Wisdom , on Midway Island is

6840-474: The movie. A 1982 Canadian Broadcasting Company documentary titled Cruel Camera interviews a cameraman who worked on the series, who said he disliked the inaccuracy of the narration. In a notorious example he discussed, the lemmings ' mass suicide in White Wilderness was staged, with the same small group of lemmings repeatedly shoved off a cliffside—rather than hundreds intentionally jumping as stated by

6935-442: The muscles and energy to undertake sustained flapping flight. Albatrosses in calm seas rest on the ocean's surface until the wind picks up again as using powered flight is not energetically worthwhile, though they are capable of flight to avoid danger. The North Pacific albatrosses can use a flight style known as flap-gliding, where the bird progresses by bursts of flapping followed by gliding. When taking off, albatrosses need to take

7030-524: The narrator—into Alberta 's Bow River , rather than the Arctic Ocean as is depicted. In 2003, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game discussed the lemming-suicide myth and in 2022, business magnate Elon Musk referred to the story after calling for Mickey Mouse to be released into the public domain , tweeting: "Ironic that Disney would disparage an entire class of rodents when their main character

7125-617: The oldest-known wild bird in the world; she was first banded in 1956 by Chandler Robbins . Of the 22 species of albatrosses recognised by the IUCN , 21 are listed as at some level of concern; two species are Critically Endangered , seven species are Endangered , six species are Vulnerable , and six species are Near Threatened . Numbers of albatrosses have declined in the past due to harvesting for feathers . Albatrosses are threatened by introduced species , such as rats and feral cats that attack eggs, chicks, and nesting adults; by pollution ; by

7220-467: The order, a seabird known as Tytthostonyx , being found in late Cretaceous rocks (70 Mya). The molecular evidence suggests that the storm petrels were the first to diverge from the ancestral stock, and the albatrosses next, with the procellarids and diving petrels separating later. The earliest fossil albatrosses were found in Eocene to Oligocene rocks, although some of these are only tentatively assigned to

7315-469: The reach of albatross, suggesting that, for some species (like the wandering albatross ), scavenged squid may be an important part of the diet. The source of these dead squid is a matter of debate; some certainly comes from squid fisheries , but in nature it primarily comes from the die-off that occurs after squid spawning and the vomit of squid-eating whales ( sperm whales , pilot whales , and southern bottlenose whales ). The diet of other species, like

7410-419: The risk to bycatch albatrosses is significantly higher in areas where these illegal longline fishing vessels operate. On Midway Atoll, collisions between Laysan albatrosses and aircraft have resulted in human and bird deaths, as well as severe disruptions in military flight operations. Studies were made in the late 1950s and early 1960s that examined the results of control methods such as the killing of birds,

7505-440: The same weight as their parents. Between 15 and 65% of those fledged survive to breed. Albatross chicks fledge on their own and receive no further help from their parents, which return to the nest after fledging, unaware their chick has left. Studies of juveniles dispersing at sea have suggested an innate migration behaviour, a genetically coded navigation route, which helps young birds when they are first out at sea. Hybridization

7600-427: The satellite plots match this contour that one scientist remarked, "It almost appears as if the birds notice and obey a 'No Entry' sign where the water shallows to less than 1000 (metres)". Also, evidence shows different ranges for the two sexes of the same species; a study of Tristan albatrosses breeding on Gough Island showed that males foraged to the west of Gough and females to the east. The albatross diet

7695-402: The sky-call). Albatrosses are held to undertake these elaborate and painstaking rituals to ensure that the appropriate partner has been chosen and to perfect partner recognition, as egg laying and chick rearing is a huge investment. Even species that can complete an egg-laying cycle in under a year seldom lay eggs in consecutive years. The great albatrosses (i.e., wandering albatross) take over

7790-562: The social travails of the sensitive poète maudit in Charles Baudelaire 's poem L'Albatros : Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer; Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées, Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher. The poet is like this prince of the clouds, who haunts the storm and mocks the archer; but exiled on earth surrounded by jeers, his giant wings make him helpless to walk. In golf , shooting three under par on

7885-470: The sooty albatrosses staying in Phoebetria . While some agree on the number of genera, fewer agree on the number of species. Historically, up to 80 different taxa have been described by different researchers; most of these were incorrectly identified juvenile birds. Based on the work on albatross genera, Robertson and Nunn went on in 1998 to propose a revised taxonomy with 24 different species, compared to

7980-523: The souls of lost sailors, so killing them would bring bad luck. The head of an albatross being caught with a hook is used as the emblem of the Cape Horners , i.e., sailors who have rounded Cape Horn on freighters under sail; captains of such ships even received themselves the title "albatrosses" in the Cape Horners' organisation. A captive albatross tormented by jeering sailors is also a metaphor for

8075-420: The southern albatrosses create large nests for their egg, using grass, shrubs, soil, peat, and even penguin feathers, whereas the three species in the North Pacific make more rudimentary nests. The waved albatross , though, makes no nest and even moves its egg around the pair's territory, as much as 50 m (160 ft), sometimes causing it to lose the egg. In all albatross species, both parents incubate

8170-548: The split between the great albatrosses and the North Pacific albatrosses occurred by 15 Mya. Similar fossil finds in the Southern Hemisphere put the split between the sooties and mollymawks at 10 Mya. The fossil record of the albatrosses in the Northern Hemisphere is more complete than that of the Southern, and many fossil forms of albatross have been found in the North Atlantic , which today has no albatrosses. The remains of

8265-552: The surface and snapping up squid and fish pushed to the surface by currents, predators, or death. The deployment of capillary depth recorders, which record the maximum dive depth undertaken by a bird, has shown that while some species, such as the wandering albatross, do not dive deeper than a metre, some species, such as the light-mantled albatross, have a mean diving depth of almost 5 m (16 ft) and can dive as deep as 12.5 m (41 ft). In addition to surface feeding and diving, they have also been observed plunge diving from

8360-592: The two albatross species found in Hawaii , one, the black-footed albatross , takes mostly fish, while the Laysan feeds on squid. The use of data loggers at sea that record ingestion of water against time (providing a likely time of feeding) suggests that albatrosses predominantly feed during the day. Analysis of the squid beaks regurgitated by albatrosses has shown that many of the squid eaten are too large to have been caught alive, and include midwater species likely to be beyond

8455-459: The vertical wind gradient . The only effort expended is in the turns at the top and bottom of every such loop. This maneuver allows the bird to cover almost 1,000 km/d (620 mi/d) without flapping its wings. Slope soaring uses the rising air on the windward side of large waves. Albatross have high glide ratios , around 22:1 to 23:1, meaning that for every metre they drop, they can travel forward twenty-two metres. They are aided in soaring by

8550-520: The very dense aggregations favoured by the mollymawks ( black-browed albatross colonies on the Falkland Islands have densities of 70 nests per 100 m ) to the much looser groups and widely spaced individual nests favoured by the sooty and great albatrosses. All albatross colonies are on islands that historically were free of land mammals . Albatrosses are highly philopatric , meaning they usually return to their natal colony to breed. This tendency

8645-426: The world, they, too, began to hunt albatross, "fishing" for them from boats to serve at the table or blasting them for sport. This sport reached its peak on emigration lines bound for Australia, and only died down when ships became too fast to fish from, and regulations forbade the discharge of weapons for safety reasons. In the 19th century, albatross colonies, particularly those in the North Pacific, were harvested for

8740-441: The world. Series narrated and/or presented by him include: Steve Irwin 's documentaries, based on wildlife conservation and environmentalism, aired on Discovery Channel , and Animal Planet . The series comprises: Albatross Captured at Midway Atoll Diomedea Thalassarche Phoebastria Phoebetria † Tydea † Plotornis † Diomedavus † Aldiomedes Albatrosses , of

8835-474: Was ringed in 1956 as a mature adult and hatched another chick in February 2021, making her at least 70 years old. She is the oldest confirmed wild bird and the oldest banded bird in the world. Albatrosses reach sexual maturity slowly, after about five years, but even once they have reached maturity, they do not begin to breed for another few years (even up to 10 years for some species). Young nonbreeders attend

8930-537: Was eventually axed when the network introduced a controversial new schedule which many commentators have criticized as " dumbing down ". Wildlife and natural history films have boomed in popularity and have become one of modern society's most important sources of information about the natural world. Yet film and television critics and scholars have largely ignored them. The BBC television series Walking With , narrated by Kenneth Branagh , used computer-generated imagery (CGI) and animatronics to film prehistoric life in

9025-478: Was found in late Oligocene strata of Washington State, USA. Plotornis was formerly often considered a petrel but is now accepted as an albatross. It is from the Middle Miocene of France , a time when the split between the four modern genera was already underway as evidenced by Phoebastria californica and Diomedea milleri , both being mid-Miocene species from Sharktooth Hill , California . These show that

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