Though two royal albatross chicks at Taiaroa Head have died recently, the colony is recovering from the effects of Dunedin's unseasonably warm autumn.
Up to 12 chicks at a time had to be hand fed during the city's warm settled spell recently as their parents were not returning to feed them.
Department of Conservation ranger Lyndon Perriman said staff were not certain what was preventing the adults from returning, but presumed it was the lack of wind.
"In my 20 plus years here, I have never struck a period like that at that time of year."
Instead of about 20 adults returning to the headland, only one or two were, so many chicks were not being fed for several consecutive days.
"You see it over summer, but it's not so bad as they're sitting on their egg, but to have it happen in this post-guard stage ... I hope we do not strike it too often."
It meant their chicks, which were aged about 3 months, lost weight and required hand feeding, a 15-minute process involving rehydration with electrolytes by tube and feeding anything from 0.5kg and 1.5kg of New Zealand king salmon.
"It was just to prop them up and get them through that period. Potentially, we could have lost more if the weather hadn't changed."
Normally, rangers would be feeding only one chick at a time, but they had been going through 6kg-7kg a day feeding the 12 chicks.
Windy conditions had returned to the headland after about eight days and yesterday's southwesterly change had seen a "flurry of activity" as many of the adults returned. There were 18 remaining chicks.
The chicks were now in the weight "safe zone" and their condition had returned, which would mean they could survive 24 hours of snowy weather, Mr Perriman said.
Unfortunately, one chick did not survive the first cold snap after the warm conditions despite having had a course of antibiotics to deal with a lung fungal infection.
The cause of a second chick's death was unknown and an autopsy was being done, he said.
