Electronic tracking tags have revolutionized our understanding of broad-scale movements and habitat use of highly mobile marine animals, but a large gap in our knowledge still remains for a wide range of small species. Here, we report the extraordinary transequatorial postbreeding migrations of a small seabird, the sooty shearwater, obtained with miniature archival tags that log data for estimating position, dive depth, and ambient temperature. Tracks (262 ؎ 23 days) reveal that shearwaters fly across the entire Pacific Ocean in a figure-eight pattern while traveling 64,037 ؎ 9,779 km roundtrip, the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically. Each shearwater made a prolonged stopover in one of three discrete regions off Japan, Alaska, or California before returning to New Zealand through a relatively narrow corridor in the central Pacific Ocean. Transit rates as high as 910 ؎ 186 km⅐day ؊1 were recorded, and shearwaters accessed prey resources in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere's most productive waters from the surface to 68.2 m depth. Our results indicate that sooty shearwaters integrate oceanic resources throughout the Pacific Basin on a yearly scale. Sooty shearwater populations today are declining, and because they operate on a global scale, they may serve as an important indicator of climate change and ocean health.avian migration ͉ diving behavior ͉ habitat use ͉ sooty shearwater ͉ tracking

A major challenge in understanding complex idiopathic generalized epilepsies has been the characterization of their underlying molecular genetic basis. Here, we report that genetic variation within the GABRD gene, which encodes the GABAA receptor delta subunit, affects GABA current amplitude consistent with a model of polygenic susceptibility to epilepsy in humans. We have found a GABRD Glu177Ala variant which is heterozygously associated with generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus. We also report an Arg220His allele in GABRD which is present in the general population. Compared with wild-type receptors, alpha1beta2Sdelta GABAA receptors containing delta Glu177Ala or Arg220His have decreased GABAA receptor current amplitudes. As GABAA receptors mediate neuronal inhibition, the reduced receptor current associated with both variants is likely to be associated with increased neuronal excitability. Since delta subunit-containing receptors localize to extra- or peri-synaptic membranes and are thought to be involved in tonic inhibition, our results suggest that alteration of this process may contribute to the common generalized epilepsies.

Breeding sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus cycle between long (11 to 14 d) and short (1 to 2 d) foraging bouts at sea, but no information exists on bird behavior during these trips. We tested the hypothesis that shearwaters use these long trips to travel to distant Antarctic waters compared to remaining in local waters. Patterns of habitat use of 28 breeding sooty shearwaters were studied using 6 g archival data loggers that recorded location, environmental temperature, and diving behavior. Dive activity was compared to remotely-sensed environmental data to characterize the habitats visited by shearwaters on long and short trips. Sooty shearwaters traveled predominantly (70% of all long trips) to cold oceanic waters along the Polar Front (mean ± SD, 1970 ± 930 km from colony) on long trips or remained within warmer neritic waters of the New Zealand shelf (515 ± 248 km from colony) on short trips. Diving depths (mean depth 15.9 ± 10.8 m, max depth 69.9 m, n = 2007 dives) were not significantly different between excursion types. Activity patterns suggest that shearwaters commuted between distant foraging grounds (e.g. Polar Front) and the breeding colony and that more than 95% of diving activity occurred during daylight hours. Although shearwaters traveled primarily to Antarctic waters on long trips, occasional trips around New Zealand waters were observed; all but 2 birds were from the northern-most study colony. Oceanic habitats in Antarctic waters were substantially different from neritic habitats around New Zealand, indicating that shearwaters experience dramatically different environmental conditions associated with each excursion type. The ability of sooty shearwaters to use 2 vastly different habitats provides greater flexibility for maximizing resource acquisition during breeding and reduces competition near the colony.

Adaptive co-management and Participatory Action Research (PAR) promotes social ecological resilience by simultaneously protecting wildlife and its habitat and promoting capacity and motivation for sustainable harvest management by communities. We report here on a case study of Z09009; Online publication date

Recent comprehensive survey data from multiple New Zealand offshore islands were combined with demographic population models to produce the first formal estimate of the total population of sooty shearwaters within New Zealand territory. We estimated the total population over 1994-2005 to be 21.3 (19.0-23.6) million individual birds in the New Zealand region. This population consisted of 12.8 (12.0-13.6) million adults, 2.8 (2.5-3.1) million chicks, and 4.4 (4.2-4.7) million breeding pairs. Breeding sooty shearwaters were concentrated primarily around the southern islands of New Zealand, with 53% breeding in the Titi Islands surrounding Rakiura (Stewart Island). Rakiura Maori muttonbirders were estimated to harvest 360 000 (320 000-400 000) sooty shearwaters per year, equivalent to 18% of the chicks produced in the harvested areas and 13% of chicks in the New Zealand region. Overall, 11% of the chicks within the Tītī Islands live on unharvested ground. Systematic and widespread surveys of breeding colonies in South America are needed before a reliable global sooty shearwater population estimate can be calculated.