New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
Z00018Received and accepted 17 July 2000
Aspects of the breeding ecology of the North Island little shearwater
Puffinus assimilis haurakiensis
ANDREA M. BOOTH1*
EDWARD O. MINOT1+
MIKE J. IMBER2
ROBIN A. FORDHAM1
1Ecology Group
Institute of Natural Resources
Massey University
Private Bag 11 222
Palmerston North, New Zealand
2Science and Research Division
Department of Conservation
P.O. Box 10-420
Wellington, New Zealand
+Author for correspondence: email E.Minot@massey.ac.nz
*Present address: Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 842,
Whangarei, New Zealand.
Abstract Aspects of the breeding ecology of the North Island
little shearwater Puffinus assimilis haurakiensis were studied on Lady
Alice Island during the 1994 breeding season. Burrows with banded breeding
birds were monitored throughout the breeding season to the fledgling stage.
Details of the mating, pre-laying exodus, incubation and chick rearing periods
are presented. These include timing of breeding, length of incubation shifts,
weight changes during incubation, and chick growth parameters. Little
shearwaters showed a very high level of breeding asynchrony, and we suggest
that this is due to their relatively short breeding season, and the fact that
they are non-migratory. Several aspects of the chick-rearing stage, including
frequent feeding of chicks, were not compatible with theories that fat deposits
in Procellariiform chicks are an adaptation either to an unreliable food
supply, or to stochastic food provisioning by individual adults. We suggest
that, unlike other species of Procellariiformes, the little shearwater has
access to a steady and predictable food supply.
Keywords little shearwater; Puffinus assimilis;
Procellariiformes; breeding ecology; food supply
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2000, Vol. 27: 347-355
0301-4223/00/2704-0347 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New
Zealand 2000
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (829K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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