Berlincourt Maud, Angel Lauren P, Arnould John P Y
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia.
PLoS One. 2015 Oct 6;10(10):e0139351. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139351. eCollection 2015.
Determining the foraging behaviour of free-ranging marine animals is fundamental for assessing their habitat use and how they may respond to changes in the environment. However, despite recent advances in bio-logging technology, collecting information on both at-sea movement patterns and activity budgets still remains difficult in small pelagic seabird species due to the constraints of instrument size. The short-tailed shearwater, the most abundant seabird species in Australia (ca 23 million individuals), is a highly pelagic procellariiform. Despite its ecological importance to the region, almost nothing is known about its at-sea behaviour, in particular, its foraging activity. Using a combination of GPS and tri-axial accelerometer data-loggers, the fine scale three-dimensional foraging behaviour of 10 breeding individuals from two colonies was investigated. Five at-sea behaviours were identified: (1) resting on water, (2) flapping flight, (3) gliding flight, (4) foraging (i.e., surface foraging and diving events), and (5) taking-off. There were substantial intra- and inter- individual variations in activity patterns, with individuals spending on average 45.8% (range: 17.1-70.0%) of time at sea resting on water and 18.2% (range: 2.3-49.6%) foraging. Individuals made 76.4 ± 65.3 dives (range: 8-237) per foraging trip (mean duration 9.0 ± 1.9 s), with dives also recorded during night-time. With the continued miniaturisation of recording devices, the use of combined data-loggers could provide us with further insights into the foraging behaviour of small procellariiforms, helping to better understand interactions with their prey.
确定自由放养的海洋动物的觅食行为对于评估它们的栖息地利用情况以及它们如何应对环境变化至关重要。然而，尽管生物记录技术最近取得了进展，但由于仪器尺寸的限制，在小型中上层海鸟物种中收集有关海上运动模式和活动预算的信息仍然很困难。短尾鹱是澳大利亚数量最多的海鸟物种（约2300万只），是一种高度远洋的鹱形目鸟类。尽管它对该地区具有重要的生态意义，但人们对其海上行为，特别是觅食活动几乎一无所知。利用全球定位系统（GPS）和三轴加速度计数据记录器的组合，对来自两个繁殖群体的10只繁殖个体的精细尺度三维觅食行为进行了研究。识别出了五种海上行为：（1）在水面休息，（2）振翅飞行，（3）滑翔飞行，（4）觅食（即水面觅食和潜水活动），以及（5）起飞。活动模式存在显著的个体内和个体间差异，个体在海上平均花费45.8%（范围：17.1 - 70.0%）的时间在水面休息，18.2%（范围：2.3 - 49.6%）的时间觅食。每次觅食行程中，个体进行76.4 ± 65.3次潜水（范围：8 - 237次）（平均持续时间9.0 ± 1.9秒），夜间也有潜水记录。随着记录设备的持续小型化，组合数据记录器的使用可以为我们提供关于小型鹱形目鸟类觅食行为的进一步见解，有助于更好地理解它们与猎物的相互作用。
