Seeing the world through the nose of a bird: new developments in the sensory ecology of procellariiform seabirds

摘要

Procellariiform seabirds (petrels, albatrosses and shearwaters) have been a wonder to sailors and biologists for many hundreds of years. These long-lived birds spend nearly all of their lives in flight over the ocean, and are tied to land only for a few months each year (or every other year) to breed and rear a single offspring. They typically nest on isolated islands, either in burrows or above ground, depending on the species. Adults forage offshore on a variety of patchily distributed prey types and return periodically to provision the nestling (reviewed by Warham 1990, 1996). Amazingly, these foraging trips are often hundreds or thousands of kilometers from the breeding colony. How they so casually perform such miracles of navigation is not well understood.