Movement Patterns and Habitat Selection of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (<i>Puffinus pacificus</i>) Breeding at Aride Island, Seychelles

Cecere, Jacopo G.; Calabrese, Licia; Rocamora, Gérard; Catoni, Carlo

doi:10.1675/063.036.0414

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Therefore, the dual foraging strategy observed in New Caledonia might be especially influenced by strong intra-specific competition (Furness & Birkhead 1984, Lewis et al 2001, as much as by poor local productivity. The maximum range of New Caledonia birds during long trips reaches 819 km, whereas it was 670 km at Heron Island, 495 km in subtropical waters (Miller et al 2018) and only 200 km in the Indian Ocean (Cecere et al 2013). This is consistent with the hypothesis that the oligotrophic environment combined with large population sizes and intense competition may indeed lead New Caledonian birds to forage farther during their long trips.…”

Section: Breeding Seasonsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…This strategy is generally as sumed to enable individuals relying on low-productivity or distant waters to provision the offspring at sufficient rate (Weimerskirch et al 1994, Weimerskirch 1998). However, WTS have also been reported to use a unimodal foraging strategy at sub-tropical sites such as Hawaii (Baduini 2002) and Aride Island, where birds make short trips over the Seychelles plateau (Cecere et al 2013). WTS also may switch between unimodal and dual foraging strategies at other sites in response to seasonal changes in re source availability (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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At-sea movements of wedge-tailed shearwaters during and outside the breeding season from four colonies in New Caledonia

Weimerskirch¹,

Grissac²,

Ravache³

et al. 2020

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The wedge-tailed shearwater (WTS) population of New Caledonia is one of the largest in the world, yet its biology and foraging ecology are poorly known. We studied WTS from 4 colonies in New Caledonia. We examined foraging behaviour and habitats using GPS receivers and light sensors during and outside the breeding season, respectively, and compared our findings with those from other WTS populations worldwide. During breeding, New Caledonian WTS alternated short foraging trips close to the colony over the lagoon, or off the reef edge, with longer trips over distant, deep waters. Whereas neighboring colonies overlapped at sea, especially during short trips, there was a clear separation of foraging zones between the pairs of colonies located in the southern versus northwestern parts of New Caledonia. Although WTS actively foraged and commuted to foraging zones during the day, they mainly returned to the colony or rested at night, indicating that they feed mainly during the day. Active foraging did not take place in more productive areas, suggesting that it may instead be related to the presence of sub-surface predators. Outside the breeding season, birds from 3 colonies had similar trans-equatorial migratory behaviour. All left New Caledonia at the same time of the year with a fast, northeasterly movement and wintered over deep waters in the same sector of the northwestern tropical Pacific Ocean. At overwintering sites, they spent most of their non-foraging time presumably sitting on the water, especially at night, making a slow westward movement before returning to New Caledonia. WTS from New Caledonia forage over warm, oligotrophic deep waters throughout their life cycle, and the species appears to have a flexible foraging strategy adapted to the various environmental conditions encountered across its wide tropical range.

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Section: Breeding Seasonsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

At-sea movements of wedge-tailed shearwaters during and outside the breeding season from four colonies in New Caledonia

Weimerskirch¹,

Grissac²,

Ravache³

et al. 2020

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…flying fish Exocoetidae) of these systems dictate a dependence of most tropical seabirds on subsurface predators (e.g. tuna) to facilitate foraging in both the breeding and non-breeding periods (Jaquemet et al 2004, Catry et al 2009, Le Corre et al 2012, Cecere et al 2013, McDuie & Congdon 2016. Future study of pink-footed shear water diet could illuminate how preferred prey availability may drive small-and large-scale non-breeding movements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eastern Pacific migration strategies of pink-footed shearwaters Ardenna creatopus: implications for fisheries interactions and international conservation

Felis¹,

Adams²,

Hodum³

et al. 2019

Endang. Species. Res.

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The pink-footed shearwater Ardenna creatopus has a breeding range restricted to 3 central-Chilean islands and travels north in the eastern Pacific Ocean during the non-breeding period. Despite its Vulnerable IUCN status, the locations and relative importance of core nonbreeding areas and migratory pathways of the species are not well understood. During 5 years between 2006 and 2015, we tracked the movements of 42 after-hatch-year pink-footed shearwaters in the non-breeding season using satellite tags. Tracked shearwaters exhibited 2 postbreeding-season migration strategies: 28% of individuals traveled 1600−2500 km north from their colonies to spend the entire non-breeding season off Peru, and 72% traveled 8000−11000 km north to waters off western North America (Baja California, Mexico, to southernmost Canada). Individuals that traveled to North America stopped in Peruvian waters on each leg of the migration, making this a migratory bottleneck. Core non-breeding-season areas included continental shelf and slope waters off Trujillo to Lima (Peru), central Baja California (Mexico), southern to central California (USA), and central Oregon (USA) to southern Vancouver Island (Canada). Of 12 national exclusive economic zones (EEZs) encountered north of their breeding range, birds primarily utilized the USA, Peru and Mexico, and to a lesser degree Chile, Canada, and Ecuador. Bycatch in fisheries was recently identified as a significant at-sea threat to pink-footed shearwaters, and we found evidence of pink-footed shearwater bycatch in 6 EEZs encountered by tracked birds, although quantification of bycatch magnitude is variable and not all fisheries have been studied.

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“…Streaked shearwaters ( Calonectris leucomelas ), which are widely distributed around Japanese islands, change their foraging areas in response to seasonal changes in the marine environment [ 70 ]. There are also some studies targeting wedge-tailed shearwaters at other breeding sites [ 60 , 75 – 77 ]. It is known that wedge-tailed shearwaters change foraging areas and strategies depending on the purpose of foraging, whether it is provision for themselves or their chicks [ 60 , 76 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This result may indicate that wedge-tailed shearwaters needed to forage for a variety of prey items or expand their foraging area, perhaps because prey biomass decreased during the rearing period [ 78 ] or the nutrient requirements of chicks changed [ 79 ]. It is known that wedge-tailed shearwaters perform dual foraging excursion, which is a combination of long and short trips [ 75 , 77 ]. Increases in prey diversity during the rearing period may be caused by dual foraging excursions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA barcoding reveals seasonal shifts in diet and consumption of deep-sea fishes in wedge-tailed shearwaters

Komura

Ando

Horikoshi³

et al. 2018

PLoS ONE

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The foraging ecology of pelagic seabirds is difficult to characterize because of their large foraging areas. In the face of this difficulty, DNA metabarcoding may be a useful approach to analyze diet compositions and foraging behaviors. Using this approach, we investigated the diet composition and its seasonal variation of a common seabird species on the Ogasawara Islands, Japan: the wedge-tailed shearwater Ardenna pacifica. We collected fecal samples during the prebreeding (N = 73) and rearing (N = 96) periods. The diet composition of wedge-tailed shearwater was analyzed by Ion Torrent sequencing using two universal polymerase chain reaction primers for the 12S and 16S mitochondrial DNA regions that targeted vertebrates and mollusks, respectively. The results of a BLAST search of obtained sequences detected 31 and 1 vertebrate and mollusk taxa, respectively. The results of the diet composition analysis showed that wedge-tailed shearwaters frequently consumed deep-sea fishes throughout the sampling season, indicating the importance of these fishes as a stable food resource. However, there was a marked seasonal shift in diet, which may reflect seasonal changes in food resource availability and wedge-tailed shearwater foraging behavior. The collected data regarding the shearwater diet may be useful for in situ conservation efforts. Future research that combines DNA metabarcoding with other tools, such as data logging, may provide further insight into the foraging ecology of pelagic seabirds.

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Movement Patterns and Habitat Selection of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) Breeding at Aride Island, Seychelles

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

At-sea movements of wedge-tailed shearwaters during and outside the breeding season from four colonies in New Caledonia

At-sea movements of wedge-tailed shearwaters during and outside the breeding season from four colonies in New Caledonia

Eastern Pacific migration strategies of pink-footed shearwaters Ardenna creatopus: implications for fisheries interactions and international conservation

DNA barcoding reveals seasonal shifts in diet and consumption of deep-sea fishes in wedge-tailed shearwaters

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