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The Short-Tailed Shearwater

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The Short-Tailed Shearwater Corella.1991, 15\2t: 45-52 Au.enldsiun Rird Reviews - Number 3 THE SHORT-TAILEDSHEARWATER: A REVIEWOF ITS BIOLOGY IRYNEJ SKIRA Dcpann1entof Parks,Wildlife and Heriragc, 13,{ Macquarie St.. Hobarr-Tas 7000 ReceivedI May 1990 The lile history of the Shorl-tailedSheaMaler puffinus tenuirostrishas been well documenled since it firsl came to lhe attentionof naturalists.Approximately 23 million birds breed in about 250 colonies in soLrtheasternAustralia trom Septemberto April. The Short-tailedShearwatef commences to breedwhen 4 to 15 years.During their completed tiletimes 27 per cent oI all individualsproduce no youngand 19 per cent only one chick.Mortality is age-relatedwith lhe mediansurvival time for breedingbeing 9.3 years after first breeding.Many areas remainopen for study,with a particularneed for interdisciplinaryresearch that includesoceanography. INTRODUCTION The Short-tailedShearwater was one of the lirst Australian birds to be banded in large numbers The Short-tailed Shcarwater P uffinut tenuirostris, (Serventy 1957, 1961) and to be subjected commonly known as the Tasmanian muttonbird, to a long-term scientiRcstudy (Guiler e/.r/. 1958). is one of about 100 species in the Procellarii- This studv was commenccd on Fisher lsland in formes. The diagnosticfeature of the order is the the Futncaux Group of Tasmania in March 1947 by cxternal nostrils produccd into tubes extending Dominic Serventy lormcrly of the CSIRO onto the bill. Other distinctive features are the (Serventy 1977) and continues to thc present, 42 hooked and plated bill, and the glandular part of years later. Due to the long-term nature of the the stomach which is greatly extended and pro- study together with the banding of some 92 00t) duces the well known'oil', actuallywax esters birds in Australia, the life history of the (Warham 1977).Most membersin this order Short- have tailed :t distinctivc musky odour. Shearwater is one of the bcst documented in the world 'I'he of any bird (Bradley eral. 1989,1990: familv Procellariidae is the most diversc Seryenty 1974;Serventy and Curry 1984;Wooller group in the order and contains 61 spccics of et at. 1988. 1989. 1990). pctrels and shcarwaters (Serventy et al. 1971). The majority are nocturnal and nest in holes, EVOLUTION burrows ot crevices.which serve to protecl them and their young from predators. The gcnus The Procellariiformesare an ancientgroup of Puffnas consistsof 15 medium-sizedspecics that birdsthat probablyoriginated from aquaticbirds are among thc world's most numerous seabirds. presentat the end of the Cretaccous,some 64 Thcir high ncsting densitiesand their fidelity to a million years ago. The phylogenetichistory of particular site has meant that thcy are highly shearwatersis little known (Kuroda 1954). vulnerable to exploitation (Seryenty et al. 197l). Accordingto Olson (1985p.211), 'mosr of the The harvcsting of Short-tailed Shearwalers, or modernspecies-gror.rps, or subgencra, of Puffinus muttonbirding as it is known in Tasmania, is onc were in existenccby the Middle Miocenc. and of the bcst documented instanccs of seabird there has bcen very little morphologicalchange harvesting(Skira 1987, 1990). within theselineages in 15 million yearsor so'. I SklfarThe biologyofthe Short-lailedShearwater Corella15(2) P. tenuirostris has not been found in any and Norman 1981), South Australia 600 000 deposits apart from pre-historic archaeological burrows in 33 colonies (A. C. Robinson, pers. srtes(Bowdlcr 1984;Friedman 1934a and b, 1941; comm.), New South Wales 25 700 breeding pairs Vanderwal and Horton 19{34).One ot the fossil in 13 colonics (Lane 1979)and Western Australia procellariids, P. c.onradi from the Middle 10 000 burrows in several colonies (Johnstoneet Mioccne of Maryland, USA. seemsto have lived al. 7990aand b; I-ane 1983). It is estimated that to thr: Pleistocene, one ntillion years ago. p. 23 rnillion birds breed in about 250 colonies. lenuirostrismay have evolvcd from a P. conradi- Recent rescarch by Japanesebiologists has con- typc ancestor through the P. inceptor line centratcd on mapping vegetationtypes in sevcral (Kuroda 1954). P. inceptor is known from the colonies in Tasmania (Kuroda 1986). Middle Miocene of California suggesting that P. tenuirostris and its congener thc Sooty Shcarwater P. griseus which is abundant in MIGRATION Ncw Zealancl. were diflerentiated in the North Atlantic-North America areas. Having settled in Thc Short-tailedShcarwater is a circum-Pacific the Southern Hemisphcrc. perhaps as late as migrant spending the boreal sunmer in the the Plcistocene. their postbreeding migration N()rthern Pacific region (Fig. l). Sexually nriry be an instinctivc responseto return to thc immature birds depart from Australia near thc Northern Hemispherc (Kuroda 1954; Marshall cnd of March, followed by the brecding birds and Scrventy 19-56). around mid-April, with the flcdged chicks leaving at the end of April to early May. Thc shearwaters l'hc firssil record left by seabirdsin Australia migratc rapidly (Serventy 1956)and arrive in the rs meagrc compilrcd to that of the Northern Northern Hcmisphere on a broad front acrossthc Hcmisphere. It spans too short a period of time central Pacific Ocean (Shuntov 197,1;Maruyana and is too low in tliversity to test biogeographic et al. 1986). hypothcses. The oldest petrcl and shearwatcr fbssilsoccur in the latc Pleistoceneor Holocene Most arrivalsto thc northern part of thc Pacific from co.rstaldeposits around Ocean arc from the end of April to the end of 'l'asmaniir. mainland Australia and In these deposits the genera May or the beginning of June. The largestflocks I'terodroma and Puftinus can be observcd in the easternpart of the Bering 'l'cts predominate (Rich and van 1982). Sea in the Northern Hemisphcrc spring and the beginning of summcr. In the second half of Thc interval from 2-5000 to l0 000 yearsbefbrc summer many pass into the Chukchi Sca, and present was a period of great faunal and climatic while birds are still dispersinginto the Chukchi changc in Australia. Climatic disruptions would Sca migration southwards begins. Some birds have affected the location of Short-tailcd Shear- also migrate along the Nortll American coast water colonies through changesin sca levels. At and others across the Pacific bctwcen the times. thc coastline was up to 50 km away from Ilawaiian Islands and North Amcrica (Shuntov its currentposition (Blom l9lili; .Tcnnings1971). 1974).This results in vcry large flocks occasion- ally occurring off the west Canadian coast in May under certain wind conditions (Guzman and DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE Myrcs 1983). Thc Short-tailed 'l'hcre Shearwatcr only breeds in In the Gult of Alaska. the Short-tailed and Australia. are known to be at least 167 Sooty Shearwatcr arc thc dominant birds in colonies around the coast of Tasmania and its spring and thev prefer the contincntal shelf, near oft.shorc islands. The total area of these which is between 100 and 150 km offshore colonies is 1 -522ha and the numbcr of burrows is (Harrison 1982). Numbers are greatest in May cstimatedat I1.4 rnillion(Skira a n1.1986). The and try Junc their estimateddensity has droppcd largestcolonies are in Tzrsmania,on Babel Islancl by half. In thc north-east of the Gulf. thc with 2.8(rmillion burrows and'l'rcfiril Island with Kodiak area, Short-tailed Shearwaltcrs out- 1.5.1million burrows ('I'owney and Skira l9U5a number Sooty Shcarwatcrs by about 1.2:1 with ancl b). Of other Australian States,Victoda has flock sizes numbering 32 (XX) (Gould et ril. 1.45 million burrows in about 30 colonies (Harris 19it2). Iray,1991 /. Sklra.'Thebiology ofthe Short-tailedShearwater Chukchi Gulf of Alaska ,,'4--- ..\.,. CANADA lt rl Californra ftl Ill an tYr lslands B,i .,1\,, . <-- {\r "€a-' /t I AUSTRALIA ,,\v / Figurc I MaP conpuring new miSration (A) rcute oJ Shott-tailed Shaorwakrs based on Jupenese ship boa survcys to the figure- oJ-eight nrcvement (B) ol SerrcntJ (1953). BreedinS arcas are ipple(I. The return journey commences at the begin 1981). The prcscnceof birds along the coastsof ning ol Septemher.Many Shorr-tailedShiar- Japan and North America led Serventy to pos- waters have been obscrved moving through the tulate a figure-of-eightmigration (Serventy 1953). we\tcrn \ectur trf lhe Pacific (Maruyama cl al. However. data from seabird survevsbv.Iaoanese lqiJb). Some flocks pass sourh antl *ell oltthore ornithologistsindicate thar migratiLnoccuir,,n a through the Gulf of Alaska to off California broad front acrossthc Pacific Ocean (Maruyama before heading acrossto Australia, but a lack of et al. l98b). RegartJlessot roule. it is appirent sightingsindicate that there is no migratorv move- that thc movement of shearwatersbetween the ment along lhe Crnadian c,rastafter August. two hemisphercsoccurs on a very broad front. It Sunrehirtls remain in rhe Norrhern Hemisohcre is possiblethat the route fbllowed varies with the during their tirstboreul \\ inter( l-i)rselland Gould age or soecificbehaviour of the bird. /. Sklra.'Thebiology of the Short-lailedShearwater Corella15(2) FEEDING high phosphoruslcvels and, thus, a high produc- tivity. Factors Shcarwarerscommonl) form largeaggregarions that affect these warer masses .rafts aflect Shorftailcd on lhc sea \urlace edlled . Thc:\e tre Shearwaters because the abundanceand availability common in calm weather and birds may thus of their food isdepen- denl up('n the aIributes of assembleeither when feeding or resting. Short- the individurl r.rater masses. tailcd Shearwatersare one of the most niquaticof the shearwatersand have a long narrow 'knee-pelvis and compressed tarsum. well diveloped BREEDING BIOLOGY processj long sternum, Jolnt short thick com_ On arrival from their migration in September- presscdhumerus and short smooth body plumagc October, the birds clean out and refurbish their (Brooke 1990; Kuroda 1954). They liave beJn burrows. Breeding Short-tailcd Shearw.lterstend scenup ro l0 m helow rhe surfircepursuing prrl to occup) lhe sumc lrurrow as in pre\i()u\ yeJrs (Skira 1979). Their feeding mettroOs lattei or one in close proximity.
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