Search results for " Storm Petrel"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Climate driven life histories: the case of the Mediterranean Storm petrel
2014
Seabirds are affected by changes in the marine ecosystem. The influence of climatic factors on marine food webs can be reflected in long-term seabird population changes. We modelled the survival and recruitment of the Mediterranean storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis) using a 21-year mark-recapture dataset involving almost 5000 birds. We demonstrated a strong influence of prebreeding climatic conditions on recruitment age and of rainfall and breeding period conditions on juvenile survival. The results suggest that the juvenile survival rate of the Mediterranean subspecies may not be negatively affected by the predicted features of climate change, i.e., warmer summers and lower rai…
Night surveys and smell, a mixed method to detect colonies of storm petrel Hydrobates pelagicus
2012
Storm-petrels usually breed in sites difficult to access, making it hard to estimate the number of individuals in a colony or even the presence of a colony. After several years of study in the main colony and diurnal surveys to other caves of the island, we planned an extensive night survey for identifying previously unknown colonies. In the breeding season of 2011 we found 5 new colonies of storm petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus) at Marettimo island, increasing the estimation of the population on this island to approximately 3000 breeding pairs. We propose the use of mixed methods to locate new colonies, as they can be found by the characteristic smell of storm petrels, but under windy condit…