Imagine your commute involved biking through a maze of dozens of albatross chicks plopped everywhere on the ground, including the road. This is a reality for U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) volunteer Dan Rapp, who decided to take a video of his unique commute. USFWS shared the video on Instagram for us all the enjoy.
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“POV: Bike commuting at the world’s largest albatross colony,” wrote USFWS in its Instagram post sharing Rapp’s helmet-cam video. “Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the central Pacific Ocean is home to millions of seabirds. During the annual nest survey this year, nearly 645,000 albatross nests were counted. That means every year there are hundreds of thousands of downy albatross chicks, like the ones seen in this biking video, meandering about on the refuge’s 2.4 square miles of land.”
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Jon Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at the refuge, explains that as they grow, albatross chicks often move out from vegetation and onto roads. Apparently, this helps them take advantage of increased winds for cooling in hot weather and to exercise their wings before their first flights.
Rapp says beach cruisers are the main method of transportation on the atoll’s minimal road system. “They are also the easiest way to maneuver ‘the chick traffic,'” Rapp told USFWS. In the video, the chicks barely seem to even notice Rapp as he passes on his bike.
Watch as a USFWS volunteer goes biking through an albatross colony here:
Header stock image of black-browed albatross chicks by Kevin Schafer/Getty Images
