Storm petrel<i>hydrobates pelagicus</i>rings in great black‐backed gull<i>larus marinus</i>pellets

Adam, Robert G.; Booth, C. J.

doi:10.1080/03078698.1999.9674195

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Fledglings may be at their most vulnerable to predators at the time of departure, and are probably easy prey. Storm-petrel mortality owing to gull predation at colonies has been frequently considered to involve largely non-breeding storm-petrels (Morse & Buccheister, 1977;Huntington et al, 1996;Adam & Booth, 1999). Nevertheless, at least 11-14% of stormpetrels killed in this study were breeders, which is a minimum estimate because there is no information about the status of non-ringed birds, although many may be breeders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Estimating predation on breeding European storm‐petrels ( Hydrobates pelagicus ) by yellow‐legged gulls ( Larus michahellis )

Oro¹,

León

Mínguez

et al. 2005

Journal of Zoology

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Several hypotheses about changes in adult survival of European storm‐petrels Hydrobates pelagicus and predation by yellow‐legged gulls Larus michahellis at Benidorm Island (western Mediterranean) during 1993–2003 were assessed. Two approaches were used: analysis of pellets containing remains of predated petrels from two caves, and multistate capture–recapture models using recaptures of breeders together with recoveries only from one of these caves. These models were used to estimate separately adult storm‐petrel survival and a minimum probability of being killed by gulls. At least 11–14% of the storm‐petrels killed had been ringed as breeders. Local adult survival varied greatly among years, from 0.701 (se=0.095) to extremely high values (0.951, se=0.031) for such a small species (0.833 on average for the whole period). Nevertheless, it was not possible to assess whether this variation was influenced by inter‐annual differences in gull predation. The peak of predation occurred in June, when maximum numbers of prospecting petrels visit the colonies. Predation was much higher at the cave that received stronger illumination from Benidorm city. Minimum predation probabilities estimated from capture–recapture varied with time from 0.022 (se=0.011) to 0.040 (se=0.016), and increased significantly after the powering of light received from the city in 1997. In these years, predation by yellow‐legged gulls accounted for a large percentage of mortality of storm‐petrels at Benidorm Island (up to 33%). Both methodological approaches confirmed that predation was carried out by specialist gulls, and that neither the size of the gull colony nor its food availability influenced predation on petrels. Management might reduce predation rate by removing gulls that nest in the caves, since these individuals tend to kill most storm‐petrels.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%