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Open AccessFirst evidence of mouse predation killing adult great albatrosses
Invasive rodents threaten native species in numerous ecosystems, especially oceanic islands. The House Mouse Mus musculus is the only introduced mammal species on sub-Antarctic Gough and Marion Islands. Ample evi...
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Article
Open AccessGlobal assessment of marine plastic exposure risk for oceanic birds
Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife ...
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Open AccessGenomic insights into the secondary aquatic transition of penguins
Penguins lost the ability to fly more than 60 million years ago, subsequently evolving a hyper-specialized marine body plan. Within the framework of a genome-scale, fossil-inclusive phylogeny, we identify key ...
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Article
Open AccessImportant marine areas for endangered African penguins before and after the crucial stage of moulting
The population of the Endangered African penguin Spheniscus demersus has decreased by > 65% in the last 20 years. A major driver of this decrease has been the reduced availability of their principal prey, sardine...
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Open AccessAquatic birds have middle ears adapted to amphibious lifestyles
Birds exhibit wide variation in their use of aquatic environments, on a spectrum from entirely terrestrial, through amphibious, to highly aquatic. Although there are limited empirical data on hearing sensitivi...
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Open AccessIndependent evolution of intermediate bill widths in a seabird clade
Interspecific introgression can occur between species that evolve rapidly within an adaptive radiation. Pachyptila petrels differ in bill size and are characterised by incomplete reproductive isolation, leading t...
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Article
Cryptic speciation and population differentiation in the yellow-nosed albatross species complex
The two species of yellow-nosed albatross, Atlantic (Thalassarche chlororhynchos) and Indian (T. carteri), are morphologically similar, but they differ in breeding behaviour and distribution. Both species are lis...
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Article
Extent and symmetry of tail moult in Amur Falcons
Amur Falcons Falco amurensis undergo one of the most extreme migrations of any raptor, crossing the Indian Ocean between their Asian breeding grounds and non-breeding areas in southern Africa. Adults are thought ...
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Open AccessAuthor Correction: Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03473-8.
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Open AccessA juvenile Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) on land at the Crozet Islands
Albatrosses and other seabirds are generally highly philopatric, returning to natal colonies when they achieve breeding age. This is not universal, however, and cases of extraordinary vagrancy are rare. The Tr...
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The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Urban Street Litter in South Africa
The lockdowns instigated to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic offered a unique opportunity to assess how restrictions on human activity affect street litter. We recorded daily litter arrival rates for 5...
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Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics
Whole-genome sequencing projects are increasingly populating the tree of life and characterizing biodiversity1–4. Sparse taxon sampling has previously been proposed to confound phylogenetic inference5, and captur...
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Open AccessForaging movements of breeding Kelp Gulls in South Africa
Kelp Gulls Larus dominicanus are one of the most abundant gulls in the Southern Hemisphere and can play an important role in their ecosystem. Understanding their foraging ecology is therefore important, especiall...
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Article
Tracking of marine predators to protect Southern Ocean ecosystems
Southern Ocean ecosystems are under pressure from resource exploitation and climate change1,2. Mitigation requires the identification and protection of Areas of Ecological Significance (AESs), which have so far n...
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Open AccessThe retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project
The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity In...
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Ecological segregation of two superabundant, morphologically similar, sister seabird taxa breeding in sympatry
Prions Pachyptila are the most abundant seabirds in the Southern Ocean and comprise two main groups: those with and without bill lamellae to filter zooplankton. With few exceptions, each breeding location support...
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Open AccessShort-term movement patterns, population estimates and breeding biology of an island endemic bird, the Tristan Thrush
The Tristan Thrush Turdus eremita is the only land bird that survived human colonisation of the main island of Tristan da Cunha and is listed as “Near Threatened”. Population estimates are confounded by the thrus...
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Plumage and bill abnormalities in albatross chicks on Marion Island
Accessible colonies of Grey-headed Albatross Thalassarche chrysostoma chicks on Marion Island have been inspected for chicks presenting mouse wounds from 2015, and during these inspections we found several cases ...
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The effects of weather, group size and type of nest on the timing of egg-laying in the Southern Ground-hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri
The timing of breeding in birds has important consequences if food availability varies seasonally. Optimal timing of the most energetically demanding stages of breeding to coincide with peaks in food availabil...
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First evidence of mouse attacks on adult albatrosses and petrels breeding on sub-Antarctic Marion and Gough Islands
Invasive house mice Mus musculus are significant predators of seabird chicks on islands where they are the only introduced mammal, but there are very few records of attacks on adult birds. We report the first evi...
