Diving Depths of Shearwaters

Alan E. Burger

doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0755:DDOS]2.0.CO;2

We can help you reset your password using the email address linked to your BioOne Complete account.

Registered users receive a variety of benefits including the ability to customize email alerts, create favorite journals list, and save searches. Please note that a BioOne web account does not automatically grant access to full-text content. An institutional or society member subscription is required to view non-Open Access content. Contact helpdesk@bioone.org with any questions.

All Fields are Required

First Name

Last/Family Name

Password

Password Requirements: Minimum 8 characters, must include as least one uppercase, one lowercase letter, and one number or permitted symbol Valid Symbols for password:
~ Tilde
! Exclamation Mark
@ At sign
$ Dollar sign
^ Caret
( Opening Parenthesis
) Closing Parenthesis
_ Underscore
. Period

Confirm Password

Web Account created successfully

Alan E. Burger^1,*

¹BirdLife Seychelles, P.O. Box 1310, Mont Fleuri, Seychelles

^*Present address: Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 3N5, Canada.aburger@uvic.ca

Abstract

Maximum diving depths were measured for shearwaters breeding on Cousin Island, Seychelles. Eighty-three percent of 23 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus) dived, and their mean maximum depth was 14 m (SD = 23 m, range 1–66 m, N = 19). All Audubon's Shearwaters (P. lherminieri) dived, and their mean maximum depth was 15 m (SD = 12 m, range 6–35 m, N = 7). These data contradict the hypothesis that tropical shearwaters should not specialize in underwater foraging. They are capable of exploiting deep prey unavailable to most other tropical seabirds. Five Puffinus species (temperate and tropical) attained allometrically scaled maximum depths comparable to those of penguins and alcids.