Cannibalism by Northern Giant Petrels on Possession Island

"Feeding sequence of a Northern Giant Petrel on the carcass of a conspecific chick at the colony of Petit Caporal, Possession Island, on 3 December 2021.   (a) Adults seen near the carrion at the beginning of our observation.  Ringed adult in the background showed agonistic behavior toward the closest adult. (b) Closest adult, with a monel ring on the left leg, approaching the chick with wings spread.  (c) Same adult dragging the carrion to feed on it.  (d) The adult tears off some flesh, showing the typical behavior of a scavenging giant petrel. (e) Carrion of the Northern Giant Petrel chick. The bill tip of the chick shows the typical red color of the Northern Giant Petrels.  Photo credits: Florent Sabatier". {Figure 1 from the publication)

Alexandre Vong (Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Villiers en Bois, France) and colleagues have published open access in the journal Ecology on instances of cannibalism observed in Northern Giant Petrels Macronectes halli.

Their short paper concludes:

“We showed here with multiple records that cannibalism is clearly part of the feeding behavior of northern [giant] petrels and partly explains the occurrence of breeding failures at Possession Island.  Further research is needed to fully understand the role of cannibalism in the feeding repertoire of giant petrels and to identify the drivers underlying this behavior.”

With thanks to Karine Delord.

Reference:

Vong, A., Delord, K., Croizé, N., Lesage, C., Zubiri, L.L., Sabatier, F. & Barbraud, C, 2024.  Cannibalism in northern giant petrels (Macronectes halli) at Possession Island, Southern Indian Ocean.  Ecology doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4491.

06 December 2024