"A lot of our team were a bit misty-eyed," trust marketing manager Sophie Barker said last night.
The bird Tumanako ("Hope, wish, desire"), recently named after a community competition, had grown up during the second year running that Royal cam had been live streaming from the northern royal albatross colony on the Otago Peninsula.
Since Royal cam launched in January last year, it had attracted almost 2 million views in more than 200 countries. Ms Barker said bird-watching via internet was "magic" and was "a very healthy kind of reality TV" which was continuing to put Dunedin on the international map as New Zealand’s wildlife capital.
The popular livestreaming of birds at the albatross colony was "a huge credit to Doc" and was not only benefiting the trust, the city and New Zealand, but was also helping to promote greater conservation awareness and engagement in a large international viewing public, she said.
The latest, 2-month-old chick star has flown away, but the internet live stream will continue to run, as the adult birds return and prepare their nests for next year.
Doc Threatened Species Ambassador Nicola Toki said yesterday that the young albatross (toroa) and Royal Cam star had left Pukekura/Taiaroa Head near Dunedin, to start a new life at sea.
There are now just two chicks remaining at the colony, 21 others having already left this year.
"It will be 4-10 years before Tumanako returns, hopefully to breed and raise his own chick," she said.
But, from rocky beginnings, this chick had developed well, last weighed in at a healthy 9.5kg and, "thanks to the fantastic work of Doc’s rangers and the staff at the Royal Albatross Centre" the bird had been "given the best possible start in life to enable a safe return to these shores".
Trust Taiaroa Head manager of operations Hoani Langsbury, said people were "sad to see the albatross chicks fledge".
But it was "a huge achievement to successfully raise 23 chicks and contribute to the growth of the colony," he said.
"We’ll miss them, but look forward to watching the 2017-18 breeding season which will start any day soon," he said.
