The parasitic tick Ixodes uriae (Acari: Ixodidae) on seabirds from Spitsbergen, Svalbard

The parasitic tick Ixodes uriae was recorded from Brünnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) at two colonies on Spitsbergen, the principal island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Six Brünnich’s guillemots from 30 studied at the Ossian Sars seabird colony were found to be parasitized. A tick was also...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Research
Main Authors: Coulson, Stephen James, Lorentzen, Erlend, Strøm, Hallvard, Wing Gabrielsen, Geir
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Norwegian Polar Institute 2009
Subjects:
Arctic
Svalbard
Barents Sea
Krossfjorden
Blomstrandhalvøya
Fuglehuken
Arctic Archipelago
Black-legged Kittiwake
Krossfjord*
Polar Research
rissa tridactyla
Uria lomvia
Spitsbergen
uria
Online Access:https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/2846
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v28i3.6137
Description
Summary:The parasitic tick Ixodes uriae was recorded from Brünnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) at two colonies on Spitsbergen, the principal island in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Six Brünnich’s guillemots from 30 studied at the Ossian Sars seabird colony were found to be parasitized. A tick was also collected from below the larger Fuglehuken colony. However, ticks were not seen on Brünnich’s guillemots examined at the smaller Krossfjorden colony, and neither were they observed in two black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) colonies (Blomstrandhalvøya and Krykkjefjellet). It is suggested that either the tick has only recently been established in Svalbard or the population has increased from a low level, and has consequently become visible to small-scale sampling studies. Implications for the seabird population of the northern Barents Sea are discussed.

Similar Items