Albatrosses also produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus.

This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights.

Other studies have shown it to be the most genetically distinct member of the wandering albatross species complex.

Among the major experts, BirdLife International has split this species,[7] Diomedea refers to Diomedes, whose companions turned to birds.

[7] Due to the difficulty in distinguishing them from snowy albatrosses, their distribution at sea is still not fully known, but the use of satellite tracking has shown that they forage widely in the South Atlantic, with males foraging west of the breeding islands towards South America and females to the east towards Africa.

However, this resulted in the population of mice, Mus musculus, increasing to the point where they would eat and kill albatross chicks en masse.

[7] Formerly classified as an endangered species by the IUCN,[12] it was suspected to be more threatened than generally assumed and undergoing a marked decline.