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Parent–offspring dietary segregation of Cory’s shearwaters breeding in contrasting environments

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Abstract

In pelagic seabirds, who often explore distant food resources, information is usually scarce on the level of trophic segregation between parents and their offspring. To investigate this issue, we used GPS tracking, stable isotopes and dietary information of Cory’s shearwaters Calonectris diomedea breeding in contrasting environments. Foraging trips at Selvagem Grande (an oceanic island) mainly targeted the distant African coast, while at Berlenga island (located on the continental shelf), shearwaters foraged mainly over nearby shelf waters. The degree of isotopic segregation between adults and chicks, based on δ13C, differed markedly between the two sites, indicating that adult birds at Selvagem fed their chicks with a mixture of shelf and offshore pelagic prey but assimilated more prey captured on coastal shelf waters. Isotopic differences between age classes at Berlenga were much smaller and may have resulted from limited dietary segregation or from age-related metabolic differences. The diet of shearwaters was also very different between the two colonies, with offshore pelagic prey only being detected at Selvagem Grande. Our findings suggest that spatial foraging constraints influence resource partitioning between pelagic seabirds and their offspring and can lead to a parent–offspring dietary segregation.

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Acknowledgments

Parque Natural da Madeira and, particularly Paulo Oliveira, Dília Menezes and Carolina Santos, provided permission for us to work on Selvagem Grande, and the Instituto de Conservação da Natureza e Biodiversidade provided the permission to work on Berlenga. We are grateful to all who gave us a valuable help in field work, namely Ana Almeida, Maria Dias, Teresa Catry, Filipe Moniz, Rui Rebelo and Mariana Marques. We are also thankful to the logistical support provided by the wardens of both Nature Reserves during our stays: Paulo Crisóstomo, Jorge Mourato, Ricardo Cabral, Carlos Santos, Maurício Paixão and Jacques da Mata. This study was financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT-Portugal) through Project PTDC/MAR/71927/2006, as part of the Programa Plurianual (UI&D 331/94), and through a doctoral fellowship to H. Alonso (BD/47055/2008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eco-Ethology Research Unit, ISPA, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 34, 1149-041, Lisbon, Portugal

    Hany Alonso & Paulo Catry

  2. Department of Life Sciences, Institute of Marine Research (IMAR/CMA), University of Coimbra, 3004-517, Coimbra, Portugal

    Hany Alonso, Vitor H. Paiva & Jaime A. Ramos

  3. Museu Nacional História Natural, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua da Escola Politécnica 58, 1250-102, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana S. Dias & Paulo Catry

  4. Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM)/Museu Nacional de História Natural, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua da Escola Politécnica 58, 1250-102, Lisbon, Portugal

    José P. Granadeiro

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  1. Hany Alonso
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  2. José P. Granadeiro
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Correspondence to Hany Alonso.

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Communicated by S. Garthe.

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Alonso, H., Granadeiro, J.P., Paiva, V.H. et al. Parent–offspring dietary segregation of Cory’s shearwaters breeding in contrasting environments. Mar Biol 159, 1197–1207 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-1900-2

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