title: Seabird acoustic communication at sea: a new perspective using bio-logging devices.
abstract: 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.
authors: Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Campus, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.|Marine Apex Predator Research Unit, Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Campus, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.
authors: Andréa
authors: A
authors: Thiebault
authors: DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, Department of Zoology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Campus, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.|Marine Apex Predator Research Unit, Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Campus, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.
authors: Pierre
authors: P
authors: Pistorius
authors: Department of Biodiversity, University of Limpopo, Private Bag X1106, Sovenga 0787, South Africa.
authors: Ralf
authors: R
authors: Mullers
authors: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR MARBEC 248: Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation, Avenue Jean Monnet CS 30171, 34203 Sète cedex, France.
authors: Yann
authors: Y
authors: Tremblay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D001947:Breeding; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D013019:South Africa; D014828:Vocalization, Animal