Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus.

[5] They also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe.

[14] The Chatham albatross was first described as Diomedea cauta eremita by Robert Cushman Murphy, in 1930, based on a specimen from Pyramid Rock.

The adult has a dark grey crown, face, upper mantle, back, upperwing, tail, and throat.

Besides the sound they will put on a courtship display which includes fanning of the tail, mutual jousting of bills, and grunting.

[16] Ground counts from 1999 to 2003 increased this number to 5,300[3] pairs for a total of approximately 11,000 breeding age birds.

[3][17] The IUCN has classified this species as Vulnerable,[1] due to the fact that they nest on one small island, which has undergone significant decline in habitat condition.

It was hoped that a new colony could be established within five years which would give the species a chance to thrive in less extreme conditions.

Each day during the period of the project, 60KG of a squid and fish mixture was prepared, warmed and fed, to the chicks by volunteers of the Chatham Island Taiko Trust.