Excitement as albatross lays egg on Dunedin livestream

Viewers of Dunedin's royal albatross colony livestream have had a rare opportunity to see one of the birds lay an egg.

The very first Toroa egg of the season was laid in front of the Royal Cam, before a global audience, on Sunday.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) said the adult female known as L chose not to make her own nest when she returned to the Pukekura/Taiaroa Head colony in mid-October - instead using one from last season.

DOC ranger Sharyn Broni said it was the first time viewers had been treated to such an event.

"I woke up and there were hundreds of comments on the live feed, so I watched it and couldn't believe it. I have seen other toroa laying eggs, but none were as noisy as she was," she said.

"Both L and her mate are already taking turns sitting on the egg, doing shifts. The incubation is long at roughly 79 days or two and a half months. We will go and check the egg in 10 to 12 days to see if it's fertile."

The Royal Cam livestream, run in partnership with Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology in New York, receives millions of views from people worldwide each year.

Broni said it was a way to connect people with a taonga species.

"These are such unique manu and when you see them so up close and personal, you want to help protect them," she said.

Four more eggs have been laid since Sunday, DOC said, with Toroa chicks from last breeding season having only just finished fledging.

It said there was a record-equal 38 chicks leaving Pukekura.

Broni said it was hoped toroa numbers would grow to a point that they needed less intensive management.

"When I first started doing this 30 years ago, we only had about 10 fledglings a year, never in my wildest dreams did I think we would reach nearly 40," she said.

DOC co-manages the albatross colony as part of Te Poari a Pukekura (the Pukekura Co-management Trust), alongside Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, Korako Karetai Trust and Dunedin City Council, with the support of the Otago Peninsula Trust.

Te Poari a Pukekura Chairman Bill Karaitiana said it was increasing people's understanding of the life cycle and 11-month breeding season of toroa.