Foods of the South Polar Skua Catharacta Maccormicki at Ardery Island, Windmill Islands, Antarctica
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Polar Biol 2001) 24: 59±61 Ó Springer-Verlag 2001 SHORT NOTE S. C. Baker á C. Barbraud Foods of the South Polar skua Catharacta maccormicki at Ardery Island, Windmill Islands, Antarctica Accepted: 3 June 2000 Abstract South Polar skuas Catharacta maccormicki) includes clis, both steep and gentle slopes, and areas of breed on ArderyIsland in the absence of a local morainic boulder slopes. breeding population of Adelie penguins Pygoscelis In manyother Antarctic areas, feeding during the adeliae). Assessment was made of the food remains in breeding season bySouth Polar skuas, and hence their skua feeding territories in 1995/1996. The diet of South selection of breeding location, is largelydependent on Polar skuas largelyconsisted of fulmarine petrel species Adelie penguin rookeries in combination with avail- which bred on ArderyIsland. Southern fulmar Fulma- abilityof food at sea Young 1963; MuÈ ller-Schwarze and rus glacialoides) remains were the predominant prey MuÈ ller-Schwarze 1973; Trillmich 1978; Hull et al. 1994; items found, and skuas appeared to feed preferentially Norman et al. 1994). Ecklund 1961) estimated that at on this species. least 95% of skua nesting habitats in the Windmill Island group are close to Adelie penguin rookeries. The absence of breeding populations of Adelie penguins on ArderyIsland allows investigation of skua feeding where other bird species are likelyto be predominant in their Introduction diet. Other studies that have investigated the diet of skuas remote from Adelie penguin populations have ArderyIsland occurs in the Arderyand Odbert Island found food items of importance to be snow petrels SpeciallyProtected Area, Windmill Island group, near Zipan and Norman 1993), southern fulmars and CaseyStation 66 °22¢S, 110°27¢E), Antarctica. Ardery Antarctic petrels Green 1986). Island has breeding populations of South Polar skua This studyinvestigated the food of skuas on Ardery Catharacta maccormicki), Wilson's storm petrel Island in the summer of 1995/1996 in relation to the Oceanites oceanicus), and the fulmarine petrels, south- proximityof skua nest sites and feeding territories to ern fulmar Fulmarus glacialoides), Antarctic petrel petrel colonies. Thalassoica antarctica), Cape petrel Daption capense) and snow petrel Pagodroma nivea). The distribution and size of bird populations on ArderyIsland are de- tailed in Bonner and Lewis Smith 1985), van Franeker Materials and methods et al. 1990) and Barbraud and Baker 1998); dierent petrel species nest in discrete colonies. Adelie penguins The diet of South Polar skuas on ArderyIsland was studied be- Pygoscelis adeliae) do not breed on ArderyIsland; the tween 22 December 1995 and 29 February1996. The location of closest colonies occur on Odbert Island, 2.5 km distant. skua nests, feeding territories of non-breeding skua pairs, and non- territorial feeding areas used byseveral skuas were identi®ed and The island consists of charnockite rock and the terrain mapped Fig. 1). Sampling locations were rated according to their proximityto breeding colonies of avian preyspecies. Territories were visited regularlyon at least a weeklybasis. C. Barbraud &)1 The remains from skua preywere recorded and then removed to Tour du Valat, Le Sambuc, 13200 Arles, France avoid repeat records at subsequent visits. Items found included e-mail: [email protected] regurgitated pellets, egg shells, remains of adult birds, and chick remains. All items at ®rst visit were included in the analysis. S. C. Baker, Pellets were sorted and the remains identi®ed bycomparison with 451 Huon Road, South Hobart, material from known bird species. The species of bird and type of Tasmania 7004, Australia item egg, adult or chick) were recorded for all remains found. Present address: Chi-squared tests Steel and Torrie 1980) were used to test 1C.E.B.C./C.N.R.S. 79360 Villiers en Bois, France whether the counts of egg, adult and chick remains of each species 60 which 44 7.4%) were found during the ®rst visit. Southern fulmar material was byfar the most numerous, constituting 86.0% of items found. Material from snow petrels 7.1%) and Cape petrels 4.2%) was much less abundant, and was concentrated at a few sites. Material from Adelie penguins 2.4%) and Antarctic petrels 0.3%) appeared veryrarelyin the skuas' diet. No South Polar skua remains were found in the collection areas. However, observations on skua breed- ing success suggest that 12 skua eggs and 3 skua chicks were probablyconsumed during the observation period. Observation of Antarctic petrel colonies suggests that a low number of eggs and chicks mayalso have been consumed byskuas. No remains of Wilson's storm petrel were found at anyof the studysites. Fig. 1 Location of South Polar skua nests N ), territories of non- The incidence of egg, adult and chick remains breeders T ) and feeding areas F ) on ArderyIsland in 1995/1996 number of items) was compared to the population pairs) of each preyspecies nesting on ArderyIsland. are in proportion to the populations of each species on Ardery Island. Chi-squared tests found that the proportion of egg, The remains of adult birds were often detached from the body, adult and chick remains were dierent than would be e.g. head, wings, tarsii, or combinations of these. Anyseparated expected from the population size of each species: egg item of adult bird was recorded. Hence the possibilityexists that v2 79.56, df 3, P<0.005; adult v2 10.18, df 3, more than one separated item from an individual bird was 2 recorded; consequently, the percentages of adult birds of a prey P<0.025; chick v 22.36, df 3, P<0.005. species maybe slightlyexaggerated relative to egg and chick counts Comparison of the number of food items relative to of the same and other species. the nesting populations Table 1) suggests a dispropor- tionatelyhigh number of southern fulmar eggs and chicks compared to those of other preyspecies. The number of southern fulmar adult remains was also Results higher than the other species; however, there were also a relativelyhigh number of snow petrel adults while the A total of 594 food items was recorded from 18 South number of Antarctic petrel adult items was dispropor- Polar skua feeding areas on ArderyIsland Table 1), of tionatelylow. Eight of the feeding sites provided sucient material Table 1 Comparison of egg, adult and chick remains between prey for comparison of diet Table 2). Southern fulmar items species of South Polar skua; counts, frequencyof occurrence and were the most numerous at all sites, forming between the numbers of preyitems relative to the preyspecies' population size Preyspecies and Item Count Frequency Preyitem/ Table 2 Frequencyof occurrence %) of food items and population size %) pair %) approximate numbers of nest sites of preyspecies within respective on ArderyIsland territories in parentheses) of eight South Polar skua feeding sites on ArderyIsland Southern fulmar Egg 267 44.9 6.9 3860 pairs Adult 175 29.5 4.5 Skua site Preyspecies Chick 69 11.6 1.8 Total 511 86.0 13.2 Southern Snow Cape Adelie Antarctic fulmar petrel petrel penguin petrel Snow petrel Egg 6 1.0 0.8 800 pairs Adult 33 5.6 4.1 N1 96.5 0.0 0.0 2.3 1.2 Chick 3 0.5 0.4 >500) 50) 50) 0) 30) Total 42 7.1 5.3 N3 94.7 0.0 5.3 0.0 0.0 Cape petrel Egg 9 1.5 1.6 >500) 50) 100) 0) 30) 550 pairs Adult 16 2.7 2.9 N6 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Chick 0 0 0 >500) 50) 100) 0) 0) Total 25 4.2 4.5 N7 91.2 2.9 0.0 5.9 0.0 >500) 50) 100) 0) 0) Antarctic petrel Egg 0 0 0 N9 63.2 14.0 15.8 7.0 0.0 247 pairs Adult 2 0.3 0.8 >500) 100) 50) 0) 0) Chick 0 0 0 N10 88.1 8.9 0.0 3.0 0.0 Total 2 0.3 0.8 >500) 100) 50) 0) 0) Adelie penguin Egg 0 0 ± N12 62.2 25.6 11.0 1.2 0.0 0 pairs Adult 14 2.4 ± 150) 200) 50) 0) 0) Chick 0 0 ± F2 94.0 1.2 3.6 0.0 1.2 Total 14 2.4 ± >500) 50) 100) 0) 100) 61 62.2 and 100% of food remains found, and were the ArderyIsland seems to be the onlylocation in the most abundant preyspecies within each feeding territory Windmill Islands region where South Polar skuas are except N12. dependent on petrel species for food. Observations on Shirley, Holl, Odbert and Peterson Islands, all of which support Adelie penguin colonies, suggest that skuas are largelydependent on Adelie penguins as a food source. Discussion Acknowledgements This research was conducted under a permit The results of this studysuggest that ArderyIsland granted under Section 9 of the Antarctic TreatyEnvironment Protection) Act of Australia 1980). We wish to thank members of supports a breeding population of South Polar skuas the 49th ANARE expedition to Caseyfor logistical support and which is largelyindependent of Adelie penguins as a ®eld assistance during this project. In particular, we would like to food source, with southern fulmars providing the bulk of thank G.G. Robertson, H. Weimerskirch and P. Jouventin for their food. Our results support the concept of opportu- facilitating the project, R.P. Sco®eld for comments on a draft manuscript, T.A. Reid for statistical advice and U. Ryan for help nistic feeding bySouth Polar skuas Norman and Ward with mapping. Digital data were supplied byAUSLIG. 1990), which states that skuas appear to largelydepend on the most numerous and readilyobtainable prey species for food.