Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus)
The Long-tailed Skua, a small (<300 g) Arctic-breeding predator and seabird, is a functionally very important component of the Arctic vertebrate communities in summer, but little is known about its migration and winter distribution. We used light-level geolocators to track the annual movements of...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3660453 2023-05-15T14:53:00+02:00 Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) Gilg, Olivier Moe, Børge Hanssen, Sveinn Are Schmidt, Niels Martin Sittler, Benoît Hansen, Jannik Reneerkens, Jeroen Sabard, Brigitte Chastel, Olivier Moreau, Jérôme Phillips, Richard A. Oudman, Thomas Biersma, Elisabeth M. Fenstad, Anette A. Lang, Johannes Bollache, Loïc 2013-05-21 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660453 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705000 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064614 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660453 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064614 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064614 2013-09-05T00:04:28Z The Long-tailed Skua, a small (<300 g) Arctic-breeding predator and seabird, is a functionally very important component of the Arctic vertebrate communities in summer, but little is known about its migration and winter distribution. We used light-level geolocators to track the annual movements of eight adult birds breeding in north-east Greenland (n = 3) and Svalbard (n = 5). All birds wintered in the Southern Hemisphere (mean arrival-departure dates on wintering grounds: 24 October-21 March): five along the south-west coast of Africa (0–40°S, 0–15°E), in the productive Benguela upwelling, and three further south (30–40°S, 0–50°E), in an area extending into the south-west Indian Ocean. Different migratory routes and rates of travel were documented during post-breeding (345 km d−1 in late August-early September) and spring migrations (235 km d−1 in late April) when most birds used a more westerly flyway. Among the different staging areas, a large region off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland appears to be the most important. It was used in autumn by all but one of the tracked birds (from a few days to three weeks) and in spring by five out of eight birds (from one to more than six weeks). Two other staging sites, off the Iberian coast and near the Azores, were used by two birds in spring for five to six weeks. Over one year, individuals travelled between 43,900 and 54,200 km (36,600–45,700 when excluding staging periods) and went as far as 10,500–13,700 km (mean 12,800 km) from their breeding sites. This study has revealed important marine areas in both the south and north Atlantic Ocean. Sustainable management of these ocean basins will benefit Long-tailed Skuas as well as other trans-equatorial migrants from the Arctic. Text Arctic East Greenland Greenland Long-tailed Skua Newfoundland North Atlantic Stercorarius longicaudus Svalbard PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Greenland Indian Svalbard PLoS ONE 8 5 e64614 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Article |
spellingShingle |
Research Article Gilg, Olivier Moe, Børge Hanssen, Sveinn Are Schmidt, Niels Martin Sittler, Benoît Hansen, Jannik Reneerkens, Jeroen Sabard, Brigitte Chastel, Olivier Moreau, Jérôme Phillips, Richard A. Oudman, Thomas Biersma, Elisabeth M. Fenstad, Anette A. Lang, Johannes Bollache, Loïc Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
The Long-tailed Skua, a small (<300 g) Arctic-breeding predator and seabird, is a functionally very important component of the Arctic vertebrate communities in summer, but little is known about its migration and winter distribution. We used light-level geolocators to track the annual movements of eight adult birds breeding in north-east Greenland (n = 3) and Svalbard (n = 5). All birds wintered in the Southern Hemisphere (mean arrival-departure dates on wintering grounds: 24 October-21 March): five along the south-west coast of Africa (0–40°S, 0–15°E), in the productive Benguela upwelling, and three further south (30–40°S, 0–50°E), in an area extending into the south-west Indian Ocean. Different migratory routes and rates of travel were documented during post-breeding (345 km d−1 in late August-early September) and spring migrations (235 km d−1 in late April) when most birds used a more westerly flyway. Among the different staging areas, a large region off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland appears to be the most important. It was used in autumn by all but one of the tracked birds (from a few days to three weeks) and in spring by five out of eight birds (from one to more than six weeks). Two other staging sites, off the Iberian coast and near the Azores, were used by two birds in spring for five to six weeks. Over one year, individuals travelled between 43,900 and 54,200 km (36,600–45,700 when excluding staging periods) and went as far as 10,500–13,700 km (mean 12,800 km) from their breeding sites. This study has revealed important marine areas in both the south and north Atlantic Ocean. Sustainable management of these ocean basins will benefit Long-tailed Skuas as well as other trans-equatorial migrants from the Arctic. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gilg, Olivier Moe, Børge Hanssen, Sveinn Are Schmidt, Niels Martin Sittler, Benoît Hansen, Jannik Reneerkens, Jeroen Sabard, Brigitte Chastel, Olivier Moreau, Jérôme Phillips, Richard A. Oudman, Thomas Biersma, Elisabeth M. Fenstad, Anette A. Lang, Johannes Bollache, Loïc |
author_facet |
Gilg, Olivier Moe, Børge Hanssen, Sveinn Are Schmidt, Niels Martin Sittler, Benoît Hansen, Jannik Reneerkens, Jeroen Sabard, Brigitte Chastel, Olivier Moreau, Jérôme Phillips, Richard A. Oudman, Thomas Biersma, Elisabeth M. Fenstad, Anette A. Lang, Johannes Bollache, Loïc |
author_sort |
Gilg, Olivier |
title |
Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) |
title_short |
Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) |
title_full |
Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) |
title_fullStr |
Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Trans-Equatorial Migration Routes, Staging Sites and Wintering Areas of a High-Arctic Avian Predator: The Long-tailed Skua (Stercorarius longicaudus) |
title_sort |
trans-equatorial migration routes, staging sites and wintering areas of a high-arctic avian predator: the long-tailed skua (stercorarius longicaudus) |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660453 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705000 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064614 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Indian Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Indian Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic East Greenland Greenland Long-tailed Skua Newfoundland North Atlantic Stercorarius longicaudus Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic East Greenland Greenland Long-tailed Skua Newfoundland North Atlantic Stercorarius longicaudus Svalbard |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3660453 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23705000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064614 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064614 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
e64614 |
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1766324403158646784 |