Certain Oceanic Seabirds Chase Hurricanes To Feed

Scientists have found that the rare Desertas Petrels (Pterodroma deserta), a wide-ranging seabird in the North Atlantic, exhibit unique foraging behaviors during hurricane season.

Contrary to other pelagic seabirds, these petrels don’t avoid intense tropical cyclones but instead exploit the dynamic conditions for their benefit, providing new insights into the impact of cyclones on open ocean marine life.

According to Francesco Ventura, lead author and a postdoc investigator in biology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI):

“Initial studies suggested that seabirds either circumnavigate cyclones or seek refuge in the calm eye of the storm. However, the Desertas Petrels we tracked did neither; instead, one-third of them followed the cyclone for days, covering thousands of kilometers. When we saw the data, we nearly fell off our chairs. This is the first time we have observed this behavior.”

While Caroline Ummenhofer, associate scientist of physical oceanography at WHOI, added:

“It’s striking how well the birds know how to exploit the large-scale wind conditions over the North Atlantic for their travels. When you overlay the petrels’ foraging trips on top of average winds, it’s a very close match.”

You can read the study here.

John Lianghttps://www.deeperblue.com/

John Liang is the News Editor at DeeperBlue.com. He first got the diving bug while in High School in Cairo, Egypt, where he earned his PADI Open Water Diver certification in the Red Sea off the Sinai Peninsula. Since then, John has dived in a volcanic lake in Guatemala, among white-tipped sharks off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, and other places including a pool in Las Vegas helping to break the world record for the largest underwater press conference.

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