Seabird acoustic communication at sea: a new perspective using bio-logging devices

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Thiebault, Andréa, Pistorius, Pierre, Mullers, Ralf, Tremblay, Yann
• Other Authors: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Port Elizabeth, South Africa, University of Limpopo, MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (UMR MARBEC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: aggregations; birds; colony; flocks; gannets; identify; information; penguins; recognition; successive predator attacks; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-BIO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Biological Physics [physics.bio-ph]; [PHYS.MECA.ACOU]Physics [physics]/Mechanics [physics]/Acoustics [physics.class-ph]; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Bird Island
• Online Access: https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-01926150; https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-01926150/document; https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-01926150/file/srep30972.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30972

International audience Most seabirds are very noisy at their breeding colonies, when aggregated in high densities. Calls are used for individual recognition and also emitted during agonistic interactions. When at sea, many seabirds aggregate over patchily distributed resources and may benefit from foraging in groups. Because these aggregations are so common, it raises the question of whether seabirds use acoustic communication when foraging at sea? We deployed video-cameras with built in microphones on 36 Cape gannets (Morus capensis) during the breeding season of 2010-2011 at Bird Island (Algoa Bay, South Africa) to study their foraging behaviour and vocal activity at sea. Group formation was derived from the camera footage. During ~42 h, calls were recorded on 72 occasions from 16 birds. Vocalization exclusively took place in the presence of conspecifics, and mostly in feeding aggregations (81% of the vocalizations). From the observation of the behaviours of birds associated with the emission of calls, we suggest that the calls were emitted to avoid collisions between birds. Our observations show that at least some seabirds use acoustic communication when foraging at sea. These findings open up new perspectives for research on seabirds foraging ecology and their interactions at sea.