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Diet of the soft-plumaged petrel (Pterodroma mollis) at Kerguelen Islands and a review of the food of gadfly petrels (Pterodroma spp.) worldwide

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Abstract

Little is known on the food and feeding ecology of the soft-plumaged petrel Pterodroma mollis, which is the single gadfly petrel Pterodroma spp. with a circumpolar breeding distribution within the Southern Ocean. Our primary goal was to describe its diet at Kerguelen Islands, which is the southernmost breeding locality of the species. Soft-plumaged petrels fed on fish (71% by mass), and secondarily on crustaceans (22%), while cephalopods (7%) and other items (< 1%) were minor dietary components. Eight-hundred and sixty prey were identified from the pooled 33 food samples, with the 2 hyperiid amphipods Cyllopus magellanicus (48%) and Themisto gaudichaudii (35%) being the main food items by number. Owing to their larger size than crustaceans, mesopelagic fishes were the main prey by mass, with myctophids being the most important fish family in terms of both abundance (68% of the fish) and diversity (10 species). Prey distribution indicated that soft-plumaged petrels foraged primarily in oceanic subantarctic waters to feed their chicks. The oceanic life style of gadfly petrels was then highlighted by a review of their diet worldwide (20 species, 26 studies). Gadfly petrels prey mainly upon mesopelagic fishes (chiefly myctophids) and squids with their relative proportions depending on species and localities. Crustaceans are minor food items for tropical species, but they form a significant part of the food of the small- and medium-sized petrels that live in temperate and cold waters. The review underlines the need for more well-designed investigations on this globally endangered group of seabirds, since dietary information is available for only 57% of the 35 species of gadfly petrels.

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Data availability

The dataset generated during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank M. Ballesteros for his help in stomach content analysis. The present work was supported financially and logistically by the Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor (Programme N°109, C. Barbraud) and the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises.

Funding

This research was funded by the Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor (Program N°109, C. Barbraud).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372 du CNRS-La Rochelle Université, 79360, Villiers-en-Bois, France

    Yves Cherel

  2. Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés, UMR 7266 du CNRS-La Rochelle Université, 2 rue Olympe de Gouges, 17000, La Rochelle, France

    Pierrick Bocher

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  1. Yves Cherel
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  2. Pierrick Bocher
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Fieldwork was performed by PB. Food samples and the dietary data were analyzed by YC who wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Both the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript, and they read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yves Cherel.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Fieldwork was approved by the Conseil des Programmes Scientifiques et Technologies Polaires (CPST) of the Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor (IPEV), and procedures and animal manipulations were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of IPEV.

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Cherel, Y., Bocher, P. Diet of the soft-plumaged petrel (Pterodroma mollis) at Kerguelen Islands and a review of the food of gadfly petrels (Pterodroma spp.) worldwide. Mar Biol 169, 31 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04019-w

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