Adaptations

The Toroa or royal albatross is a graceful giant with a wing span of over three metres. They have a black cutting edge to their upper mandible, which sets them apart from adults of the closely related wandering albatross. Juvenile royal albatross have black flecks on their upper-parts. The royal albatross flies very gracefully but its huge size makes them very clumsy on land.

Royal albatross usually mate for life, despite long separations at sea. Recognised pairs return to the same nesting area each time they breed. When the chick has hatched, the parents take turns at guarding and feeding it for the first five or six weeks. Chicks are then left unguarded, except for feeding visits, until they fledge at about eight months. After a successful fledging, the parents will leave the colony and spend the following year at sea before returning to breed again

 

Toroa spend most of their lives at sea, returning to land only to breed and raise their young. They start breeding at around 6 to 10 years old, each pair raising one chick every two years.

 

Some of the important adaptations are the size of their legs and arrangement. They are spread apart and very skinny, they have large webbed feet. This is because the large webbed feet will help the Toroa when it’s moving around in the water.

 

I think these adaptions have come about over 100’s of years of not setting foot on land for long periods of time.




Info from

http://www.doc.govt.nz/documents/about-doc/concessions-and-permits/conservation-revealed/toroa-royal-albatross-lowres.pdf