Journal
JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
Volume 266, Issue -, Pages 163-169Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1017/S0952836905006734
Keywords
Australasian gannet; Morus serrator; parental age; reproductive success; food availability
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Age-related improvements in reproductive performance in seabirds have been well documented, and may be explained by improvements in foraging efficiency or increased experience and reproductive effort with age. The interactive effects of parental age and food supply on reproductive performance, however, remain poorly understood. A widespread mass mortality of pilchards Sardinops sagax in southern Australian waters in 1998 provided a unique opportunity to investigate the effects of a sudden reduction in the availability of a major prey species on Australasian gannets Morus serrator, an important local marine predator. Age-related differences in the breeding performance of gannets were evident in 1 year of reduced pilchard availability; when food was not limited, both young and experienced parents were equally capable of rearing chicks and had similar levels of breeding success. These data clearly demonstrate the interactive effects of parental age and food supply on breeding performance and suggest that such differences only become apparent when conditions become more stressful.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available