A technique which may allow accurate determination of the age of adult birds

• Published in: Ibis
• Main Authors: KLOMP, N. I., FURNESS, R. W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1992
• Subjects: Fulmar; Catharacta skua; common guillemot; Fulmarus glacialis; Great skua; Uria aalge; uria
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919x.1992.tb03806.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1474-919X.1992.tb03806.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1992.tb03806.x

Although many age determination techniques have been developed for four of the five vertebrate classes, none has been developed to determine ages of adult birds. Here we report a technique, involving counting endosteal layers in the tibia, that has allowed us accurately to determine the age (in years) of 12 dead birds of species in four different families, Fulmar Fulmarus glacialis, Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis, Redshank Tringa totanus and Great Skua Catharacta skua, all of which had been ringed as chicks and so were of known ages up to 16 years old, but provided inaccurate results for one species, the Common Guillemot Uria aalge. Since other bird species have been found to possess endosteal layers and no species has yet been found to lack such layers, this would appear to be a technique of general applicability which could permit invaluable new work in both pure and applied fields of ornithology.