![]() exulans, which they elevated to species status, and use the term wandering albatross to refer to a species complex that includes the proposed species D. Some experts considered there to be four subspecies of D. Diomedea exulans gibsoni (sometimes known as Gibson's albatross, and treated as a full species, Diomedea gibonsi, by some authorities. ![]() Diomedea refers to Diomedes whose companions turned to birds, and exulans or exsul are Latin for "exile" or "wanderer" referring to its extensive flights. The wandering albatross was first described as Diomedea exulans by Carl Linnaeus, in 1758, based on a specimen from the Cape of Good Hope. Some individual wandering albatrosses are known to circumnavigate the Southern Ocean three times (covering more than 120,000 km) in one year. This is also one of the most far ranging birds. It is one of the largest birds in the world, and one of the best known and studied species of bird in the world. The wandering albatross is one of the two largest members of the genus Diomedea (the great albatrosses), being similar in size to the southern royal albatross. Together with the Amsterdam albatross, it forms the wandering albatross species complex. A few authors still consider them all subspecies of the same species. The SACC has a proposal on the table to split this species, and BirdLife International has already split it. It was the first species of albatross to be described, and was long considered the same species as the Tristan albatross and the Antipodean albatross. The wandering albatross, snowy albatross, white-winged albatross or goonie ( Diomedea exulans) is a large seabird from the family Diomedeidae, which has a circumpolar range in the Southern Ocean.
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