The use of acoustics to monitor burrow-nesting white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis at Bird Island, South Georgia
Tape recordings of two types of vocalisations were used to assess burrow occupancy by white-chinned petrels (Procellaria aequinoctialis) at South Georgia. Birds responded to the rattle call on 74% of occasions and a wheezy call on 85%, with only 10% failing to respond to both calls played one after...
| Published in: | Polar Biology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Springer
2000
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20407/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s003000000128 |
| Summary: | Tape recordings of two types of vocalisations were used to assess burrow occupancy by white-chinned petrels (Procellaria aequinoctialis) at South Georgia. Birds responded to the rattle call on 74% of occasions and a wheezy call on 85%, with only 10% failing to respond to both calls played one after the other. Occupancy was determined throughout the pre-egg and incubation period and results confirmed what is known about patterns of occupancy by white-chinned petrels. Adults in burrows known to hatch a chick responded on average to 69% of recordings during incubation and less than 10% in only 4% of burrows. Significant inter-site and inter-annual variations in occupancy were recorded, suggesting that this method is sensitive to changes in the number of petrels returning to breed. A sampling protocol for providing population indices for monitoring purposes is recommended. |
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