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The Incidence, Functions and Ecological Significance of Petrel Stomach Oils

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The Incidence, Functions and Ecological Significance of Petrel Stomach Oils 84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW ZEALAND ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 24, 1977 THE INCIDENCE, FUNCTIONS AND ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PETREL STOMACH OILS JOHN WARHAM Department of Zoology, University of Canterbury, Chrb;tchurch SUMMARY: Recent research into the origins and compositions of the stomach oils unique to sea~birds of the order Procellariifonnes is reviewed. The sources of these oils, most of which contain mainly wax esters and/or trigIycerides, is discussed in relation to the presence of such compounds in the marine environment. A number of functions are proposed as the ecological roles of the oils, including their use as slowIy~mobilisable energy and water reserves for adults and chicks and as defensive weaponry for surface-nesting species. Suggestions are made for further research, particularly into physiological and nutritional aspects. INTRODUCTION their table, a balm for their wounds, and a medicine Birds of the Order Procellariiforrnes (albatrosses, for their distempers." In New Zealand, Travers and fuJmars, shearwaters and other petrels) are peculiar Travers (1873) described how the Chatham Island in being able to store oil in their large, glandular and Morioris held young petrels over their mouths and very distensible fore-guts or proventriculi.. All petrel allowed the oil to drain directly into them. In some spedes so far examined, with the significant excep- years the St Kildans exported part of thei.r oil har~ tion of the diving petrels, Fam. Pelecanoididae, have vest, as the Australian mutton-birders stilI do with been found to contain oil at various times. The oi.1 oil from the chicks of P. tenuirostris. This has been occurs in both adults and chicks, in breeders and used as a basis for sun~tan lotions, but most nowa- non~breeders, and in birds taken at sea and on land. days ;.<;used as a food stock supplement: a small The oil is a light (specific gravity 0.88), low viscosity quantity is said to impart a shiny coat to horses. Some fluid, often solidifying to a wax in cool conditions, 2796 gallons (12711 n were sold after the] 976 season with a sweet, slightly fishy smell. It may be colour- as a by product of the! harvesting of 549352 squabs less or straw-coloured, but it is often darker - from (B. S. Simmonds, pers. comm.). It is also possible amber to a deep reddish-brown. The colour is that fossil stomach oil has been used medicinally in neither constant nor species-specific. For example, the east for thousands of years. that from the cape petrel (Daption capense) is bright A surgeon, John Scouler (1826), was among the orange before egg laying but becomes duller during first in modern times to discuss stomach oil from the birds 4 to 6 day incubation stints and at the end personal experience. He wrote of Daption capen.se, of these is normally dull green (Pinder, 1966). This caught off Patagonia, which "never failed to vomit a green tinge is common also in oil samples collected considerable quantity of yellowish oily fluid on his from fasting adult petrels and may be due to the enemy, and on dissection the source of this supply is presence of bile pigments. easi,ly detected. The first stomach is large and mem- Many surface-nesting petrels spit oil in defense or branous and thickly set with numerous glandular offense, but copious amounts are often found in the follicles, which appear to be the organs which secrete chicks of burrowing species and these seldom spit this oily fluid, the only defensive weapon this animal oil. Northern fulmar (Fulmarus f?/aciaUs) chicks at St possesses." Kilda yielded about 280 ml of oil each; sooty shear- A number of papers describing aspects of the bio~ water (PufJinus f?dseus) chicks may contain 120 ml, chemistry of petrel oi,ls appeared in the 1920's and while Murphy (1936) reports 200 mI of oil being 1930's, but the analyses were incomplete by modern taken from a short~tailed shearwater (PufJinus tenui- standards. The investigators seem to have known rostris) chick: this would amount to about 30% of little of the birds in life and so made erroneous the adult's body mass. deductions such as that of Otago chemists Carter Petrel oil has been used medicinally, as a lubricant and Malcolm (1927) who concluded that mutton- and as an iItuminant. The northern fulmar was a bird oil was ingested preen gland secretion. Tn some mainstay of the St Kildans' economy, supplying "oil accounts the species from which the oil was drawn for their lamps, down for their beds, a delicacy for were misidentified e.g~ oil from the Australian and W AlHHM' fNrmf:Nrf: FUNCfIONS AND EcOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCEOF PETREL STOMACH OILS 85 New Zealand mutton-birds (P. tenuirostris and P. COMPOSITIONS griseus) was attributed to a quite different petrel The main components of the oil samples so far Pterodroma lessoni (Serventy, Serventy and Warham, analysed (by thin-layer and gas-liquid chroma- 1971). tography and infra-red spectroscopy) are summarised In the early 1960's this writer circulated a review in Table 1. of current knowledge about petrel stomach oils In 24 of the species-samples either triglycerides or among procellariiformists asking for samples of oil wax esters predominated. Many samples contained so that analyses using modern techniques could be both. In a few oils there were no wax esters, in others run to establish, a. whether the oils were of similar no triglycerides. Oil from one species. Oceanodroma composition and therefore probably of a secretory leucorhoa, had neither: instead, large quantities of nature, or b. of varied composit~on and therefore glycerylether diesters were found. These were also more likely to be food-derived. These analyses have present in oils from Pterodroma mallis, Puffinus recently been published (Warham, Watts and Dainty, carneipes and Procellaria aequinoctialis but in 1976; Watts and Warham, 1976) and with compar- smaller proportions and only in association with wax able analyses by other workers they provide inform- ester or triglyceride. ation on oils from 25 petrels, There are about 100 In addition to the components shown in the table, species in the order. most oils contained small quanties of di-and mono~ TABLE 1. The main constituents of petrel stomach oi/s. (X = principal constituent, X = less abundant constituent, WE = wax ester, TG = triglyceride, Ch = cholesterol, DAG = diacylglycerol, S = squalene.) Species WE TG Ch DAG S Authority Dioffiedeidae Diomedea epomophora X X X Warham et al., 1976 D. exulans X x x Lewis, 1969a D. melanophris x X Warham et al., 1976; Clarke & Prince, 1976 D, chrysostoma x X Clarke & Prince, 1976 D. bulleri X Warham et al., 1976 Phoebe tria palpebrata X Warham et al., 1976 Procellariidae Macronectes giganteus X X Clarke & Prince, 1976 M.halli X X Warham et aI., 1976; Clarke & Prince, 1976 Fulmarus glacialis X x Cheah & Hansen, 1970a; Warham et al., 1976 Dap/ion capense X x Warham et al., 1976 Pagodroma nivea X Warham et aI., 1976 Pterodroma macroptera X Cheah & Hansen, 1970b Pt. lessoni X Warham e/ al., 1976 Pt. inexpectata X X Warham et al., 1976 Pt. mol/is X x x X Warham e/ al., 1976 Halobaena caerulea X x Clarke & Prince, 1976 Pachyptila desolata X x Clarke & Prince, 1976 Proal/aria aequinoctialis x x x x Warham et al., 1976 Pro westlandica x X x Lewis, 1969a Puffinus griseus X x Warham et al., 1976 P. tenuirostris X x Cheah & Hansen, 1970a ; Warham et al., 1976 P. carneipes X X x Lewis, 1969a P. pacijicus X X Cheah & Hansen, 1970b Hydrobatidae Hydrobates pelagicus X Warham et al., 1976 Oceanodroma leucorhoa x X Lewis, 1966 86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW ZEALAND ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 24, 1977 glycerides and cholesterol, some free fatty acid and ated and there were smaller amounts of alcohols. However, one of two samples of oil from triglyceride and squalene. Puffin us pacificus contained substantial proportions 3. The constJ.tuents of the petrel oils show strong of cholesterol (43 % by weight), one from Pterodroma similarities to those of oils from crustacea, macl'optera 30% of cholesterol ester, whUe oils from squid and fish either eaten by petrels or related Daption capense and Procellaria aequinoctialis con- to known foods of petrels. This also includes tained 23-43 % of long chain alcohols. the hydrocarbons pristane and squalene: the latter could originate from shark's flesh or liver ORIGINS eaten by scavenging albatrosses, pristane from Tne origin of these oils has been the subject of copepods and planktonic herbivores lower some dISCUSSIonsmce Scouler and later anatomists down in the food chain. drew altention to the copious glands in the petrel An example of the correspondence in lipid proventncuJUs. One school believed that the lipids constitutions is given by the fatty acid and were fooo residues, even excretory products, of birds alcohol components of the wax esters and the with an excess of fat in their diet; another that the fatty acids of the triglycerides from marine oils were internal secretions of the proventricular animals and petrel stomach oils. Both show a glands. Harrison Matthews (1949) examined stained preponderance of 16:0, 16: 1,18: 1,20: 1,20:5 sections of proventri.cular epithelia and concluded and 22: 6 carbon chain compounds. Oil from that the glands were probably secreting lipid into the Daption capense, however. was unique in lack- lumen of the stomach. ing 14: 0 or 16: 0 a1cohols in its wax esters. However, the intra~cellular fat that Matthews This suggests that there is something special observed stained wi.th Sudan Black but not with about this petrel's foods, at least around the Sudan III or IV.
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