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Ship's Cove is one of the few sandy beaches on South Africa's sub-Antarctic Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean and is home to hundreds of seabirds from loafing King Penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus on the beach to Sooty Albatrosses Phoebetria fusca breeding on the steep cliffs above.  Giant petrels Macronectes spp. are used to squabbling over the occasional King Penguin meal in the cove, but since a 15-m long Sperm Whale Physeter catadon carcass washed up on 9 June this year there has been food aplenty for them.

Four weeks later and the carcass is still fairly intact, and although it is getting shifted about with the waves and currents it seems to have settled on the eastern side of the cove.  Up to 65 ACAP-listed Northern M. halli and Southern Giant Petrels M. giganteus as well as up to 47 Lesser Sheathbills Chionis minor have been recorded at any one time scattered all over the blubbery mass.  The overwintering team based on the island have all had a good gawk, although it is now getting quite ripe so the carcass is losing its appeal.  Not so for the hoard of giant petrels which continue to scrabble and compete for food with wings outstretched and tails held vertical; for them this is a welcome food source in the middle of winter.

Ron Summers counted 58 giant petrels still feeding on the remains of 14 beached Sperm Whales in the South Atlantic that had washed ashore fully 14 months previously.  How long will Marion's whale last as a giant petrel feast?

Reference:

Summers, R.W. 1979.  Giant Petrels feeding on 14 month-old whale carcasses.  Cormorant 7: 33.

With thanks to Linda Clokie, Jacqui Davis and John Lucas for information and photographs.

Ben Dilley, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town and John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 23 July 2012