Almost like a whale - first evidence of suction feeding in a seabird

The Journal of Experimental Biology
Manfred R EnstippDavid Grémillet

Abstract

Little auks (Alle alle) are one of the most numerous seabird species in the world and feed primarily on copepods in arctic waters. Their high daily energy requirements leave them vulnerable to current changes in the arctic plankton community, where a smaller, less-profitable copepod species (Calanus finmarchicus) becomes increasingly abundant. Little auks have been estimated to require ∼60,000 copepods per day, necessitating prey capture rates of ∼6 copepods per second underwater. To achieve such performance, it has been suggested that little auks capture their prey by (non-visual) filter feeding. We tested this hypothesis by exposing little auks to varying copepod densities within a shallow experimental pool and filming their prey capture behaviour. At none of the copepod densities tested did birds filter feed. Instead, all birds captured copepods by what we identified as visually guided suction feeding, achieved through an extension of their sub-lingual pouch. Suction feeding is very common in fish and marine mammals, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that it has been specifically identified in a seabird species. While presumably less efficient than filter feeding, this behaviour may allow little auks t...Continue Reading

References

Nov 15, 2006·Journal of Morphology·Alexander J Werth
Jul 22, 2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Martin DaufresneUlrich Sommer
May 14, 2010·Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·Thomas KiørboeHans H Jakobsen
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Jun 3, 2016·Global Change Biology·Sébastien DescampsHallvard Strøm
Aug 13, 2017·Global Change Biology·Agata WeydmannSławomir Kwaśniewski
Dec 2, 2017·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Leonid SvetlichnyThomas Kiørboe

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Citations

Jun 5, 2020·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Rita S MehtaBenjamin A Higgins
Nov 16, 2018·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Geerat J Vermeij
Feb 20, 2019·The Journal of Experimental Biology·T Aran MooneyMarianne H Rasmussen
Jul 14, 2020·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Stephen M DebanUlrike K Müller
Sep 4, 2021·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Corrine Avidan, Roi Holzman

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