From the eye of the albatrosses: a bird-borne camera shows an association between albatrosses and a killer whale in the Southern Ocean

Albatrosses fly many hundreds of kilometers across the open ocean to find and feed upon their prey. Despite the growing number of studies concerning their foraging behaviour, relatively little is known about how albatrosses actually locate their prey. Here, we present our results from the first depl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2009-10, Vol.4 (10), p.e7322-e7322
Main Authors: Sakamoto, Kentaro Q, Takahashi, Akinori, Iwata, Takashi, Trathan, Philip N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal Migration
Animals
Antarctic Regions
Aquatic mammals
Behavior, Animal
Birds
Birds - physiology
Cameras
Cetacea
Commercial fishing
Delphinidae
Diomedea
Diving
Ecology/Behavioral Ecology
Ecology/Marine and Freshwater Ecology
Eye
Feeding Behavior
Fisheries
Flight, Animal
Food
Forage
Forages
Foraging behavior
Longlining (Fisheries)
Marine and Aquatic Sciences/Ecology
Marine and Aquatic Sciences/Technology and Engineering
Marine mammals
Oceans
Orcinus orca
Predators
Predatory Behavior
Prey
Studies
Thalassarche
Thalassarche cauta
Whale, Killer - physiology
Whales & whaling
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Summary:Albatrosses fly many hundreds of kilometers across the open ocean to find and feed upon their prey. Despite the growing number of studies concerning their foraging behaviour, relatively little is known about how albatrosses actually locate their prey. Here, we present our results from the first deployments of a combined animal-borne camera and depth data logger on free-ranging black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophrys). The still images recorded from these cameras showed that some albatrosses actively followed a killer whale (Orcinus orca), possibly to feed on food scraps left by this diving predator. The camera images together with the depth profiles showed that the birds dived only occasionally, but that they actively dived when other birds or the killer whale were present. This association with diving predators or other birds may partially explain how albatrosses find their prey more efficiently in the apparently 'featureless' ocean, with a minimal requirement for energetically costly diving or landing activities.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0007322