Jack Bowling wrote:

>This is meant mainly for Richard Rowlett but also anyone else with
>knowledge on the subject: what is the main foraging strategy of N. Fulmar
>(and other tubenoses)? Is their main prey surfacing nocturnal animals such
>as squid? If so, do they have to have relatively flat seas in order to
>feed successfully? The forwarded note from Gary Kaiser saying that the
>wrecked specimens he had seen were emaciated lends credence to the
>starvation/weather theory being the major cause of the fulmar deaths i.e.
>storm force winds produced seas "lumpy" enough to prevent feeding ->
>starving birds then either fell to the sea nearshore and were swept
>onshore by wave action or were "wrecked" onshore and succumbed to either
>wind/weather damage or "exposure" on land.

Fulmars eat a lot of squids, which I presume they get at night. The
stomachs of beached birds are at times full of squid beaks, which take a
long time to digest. I could easily imagine a scenario in which really
rough seas prevented them from feeding, even though the storm per se had no
adverse effects on them. Also, if food is scarce out there in the ocean,
which it has been for a while, they may not be able to take a very extended
period of fasting. It's of interest that Common Murres were common
offshore at the same time and experienced very little mortality. The other
birds may have been picked up on the beach more or less in proportion to
their abundance at sea, and I think it hit the surface foragers especially
hard (the number of dead Laysan Albatrosses--at least 3 that I know of--was
unprecedented).

Contrary to what Gene wrote, all the fulmars we examined here (much smaller
sample size than Burke and collected on a different date) were extremely
emaciated and could have starved, and the great majority were dark morphs
(about the same frequency as one sees on the ocean).

Fulmars were found inland at several localities in southern BC during the
storm period, according to Wayne Campbell.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416