Why a small seabird dares to fly toward cyclones

Tropical cyclones are synonymous pinch destruction. But astatine slightest 1 seabird whitethorn return advantage of them arsenic feeding opportunities.

The Desertas petrel, a mini and threatened seabird autochthonal to nan North Atlantic Ocean, has agelong been associated pinch oncoming storms. A caller study suggests that this skilled flier purposely interacts pinch cyclones, flying agelong distances toward them and pursuing their wake, researchers study successful nan July 22 Current Biology.

It’s a risky gambit by nan petrel (Pterodroma deserta), which must contend pinch upwind speeds approaching 90 kilometers per hr and swells up to 8 meters high. The apt payoff: an abundance of food. The squad recovered markedly higher levels of chlorophyll successful nan stirred-up, cooler h2o of nan storms’ wakes, suggesting elevated levels of phytoplankton. This could trigger a feeding arena that draws nan petrels’ prey—fish and cephalopods—to nan surface.

Biologist Francesco Ventura and colleagues mixed search information from GPS units placed connected 33 petrels complete 4 breeding seasons pinch information from cyclone activity during nan aforesaid clip span. These birds’ breeding-related foraging trips are among nan longest successful nan animal world — a unsmooth clockwise circle of astir 12,000 kilometers from their colony connected Bugio Island, astir 450 kilometers northbound of nan Canary Islands, toward Newfoundland and back.

Once nan tracked petrels reached astir 900 kilometers from nan oculus of an approaching cyclone, almost 1 3rd of them actively flew toward it, nan squad found. Some 400 kilometers from nan eye, nan birds slowed down. The GPS information aren’t elaborate capable to shed ray connected their precise behavior, but it appears nan petrels whitethorn drift connected nan ocean’s surface, carried by hurricane-force winds done precocious seas — “conditions that are very difficult to imagine,” says Ventura, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution successful Massachusetts.

Once a cyclone passed, astir half of nan tracked petrels followed its aftermath and astir a 3rd pursued nan storm’s way for days and thousands of kilometers.

Although “we are still a agelong measurement from having conclusive evidence,” Ventura says, he believes Desertas petrels whitethorn usage infrasound to initially find cyclones. This very debased wave sound created by upwind and waves — called “the sound of nan sea” — extends astir 900 kilometers from nan sound’s source, says Ventura, nan aforesaid region astatine which tracked petrels began to alert toward nan cyclones.

Desertas petrels mightiness not beryllium nan only type to usage hurricane wakes opportunistically, Ventura says. “It’s imaginable we’re describing a process that triggers a biologic response” utilized by sharks, tuna, turtles and marine mammals for foraging.

Marine ecologist Lesley Thorne says that Ventura’s squad has filled “a really important gap” successful our knowing of why immoderate seabirds pursuit storms. Another seabird, nan streaked shearwater, flies into and pinch cyclones — presumably arsenic a measurement to past them (SN: 10/17/22).

Linking nan ample amounts of nutrient successful hurricane wakes pinch seabird behaviour “was really, really cool … thing that had not been done to date,” says Thorne, of Stony Brook University successful New York. It’s nan benignant of deeper investigation she believes will thief america amended understand “how and why upwind is impacting seabirds,” peculiarly arsenic nan oceans warm.