Marked differences in foraging area use and susceptibility to predation between two closely-related tropical seabirds

Two closely-related tropical seabirds, the white-tailed and red-tailed tropicbirds, exhibit complete spatial segregation in their foraging areas despite similar behaviors at sea. This finding challenges ecological theories on niche partitioning among sympatric species, particularly in resource-poor tropical environments like Aldabra Atoll. Using GPS, immersion, depth, and accelerometry loggers, researchers tracked the birds' movements and revealed that red-tailed tropicbirds forage further and in different areas than white-tailed tropicbirds. Additionally, nest predation by both native avian predators and invasive rats drives population declines, with each species targeted differently. The study underscores the need for large-scale marine protection around tropical seabird colonies and highlights the importance of rat eradication and potential measures to protect nests from native predators.

Fayet, A. L., Sanchez, C., Appoo, J., Constance, J., Clucas, G., Turnbull, L. A., & Bunbury, N. (2023). Marked differences in foraging area use and susceptibility to predation between two closely-related tropical seabirds. Oecologia, 203(1-2), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-023-05459-x