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Prey remains of brown skua is evidence of the long-term decline in burrow occupancy of blue petrels and thin-billed prions at Mayes Island, Kerguelen

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Abstract

Skuas are top predator and scavenger seabirds in marine and terrestrial ecosystems and monitoring their diet can provide valuable insights on the abundance and distribution of prey. The diet of the brown skua was studied at Mayes Island, Kerguelen archipelago, by collection of prey remains during their breeding cycle in 2013. We investigated a potential diet shift by comparing our results to those obtained two decades ago at the same colony. Our results confirmed the high specialisation of this skua colony in active predation of two burrowing petrels: the blue petrel and the thin-billed prion. We observed a shift in the diet of the brown skua with the importance of the thin-billed prion dropping significantly by 15%. Concomitantly, we observed a decreasing trend of burrow occupancy of the two main preys, with a more severe decline for the thin-billed prion. We suspected a dietary shift of brown skuas at Mayes Island related to a change in the relative abundance of blue petrels and thin-billed prions. Diet of brown skuas appears to be a valuable indicator of the relative abundance of burrowing petrels when they constitute the main food resource during breeding.

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Fig. 1
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adapted from Mougeot et al. 1998). Grey colours, from very light to very dark, correspond, respectively, to the prelaying period, the incubation period and the chick rearing period

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Acknowledgements

We are particularly grateful to all the fieldworkers involved in the monitoring programs on blue petrels and thin-billed prions at Mayes Island since 1985, as well as A. Corbeau, C. De Francecshi, J.F. Laclavetine and H. Alcaras for their assistance on the field and F. Orgeret for his stimulating discussions. These long-term studies were supported financially and logistically by the French Polar Institute IPEV (program 109, resp. H. Weimerskirch), the Zone Atelier Antarctique (CNRS-INEE), Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, Université de La Rochelle (PhD Grant N. Pacoureau). Handling and manipulation of all animals were approved by the IPEV ethics committee. All animals in this study were cared for in accordance with its guidelines. We thank D. Besson for helping in the data management.

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  1. Nathan Pacoureau and Elie Gaget have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372, CNRS & Université de La Rochelle, 79360, Beauvoir sur Niort, France

    Nathan Pacoureau, Elie Gaget, Karine Delord & Christophe Barbraud

  2. Institut de Recherche Pour la Conservation des Zones Humides Méditerranéennes, Tour du Valat, le Sambuc, 13200, Arles, France

    Elie Gaget

  3. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Centre d’Ecologie Et Des Sciences de la Conservation-CESCO - UMR 7204 MNHN-CNRS-UPMC, 43 rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France

    Elie Gaget

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  1. Nathan Pacoureau
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Contributions

EG and NP had the original idea. EG, NP, KD and CB designed and coordinated the research. Data management and quality check were performed by KD, EG and NP. Analyses were performed by EG and NP with the support of CB. EG, NP, KD and CB wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nathan Pacoureau.

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Pacoureau, N., Gaget, E., Delord, K. et al. Prey remains of brown skua is evidence of the long-term decline in burrow occupancy of blue petrels and thin-billed prions at Mayes Island, Kerguelen. Polar Biol 42, 1873–1879 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-019-02567-4

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