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Introduced mammals coexist with seabirds at New Island, Falkland Islands: abundance, habitat preferences, and stable isotope analysis of diet

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Abstract

The largest known colony of Thin-billed prions Pachyptila belcheri has been coexisting with introduced mammals for more than 100 years. Three of the introduced mammals are potential predators of adults, eggs and chicks, namely ship rats Rattus rattus, house mice Mus musculus and feral cats Felis catus. We here determine habitat preferences over three seasons and dietary patterns of the unique set of introduced predators at New Island, Falkland Islands, with emphasis on the ship rats. Our study highlights spatial and temporal differences in the levels of interaction between predators and native seabirds. Rats and mice had a preference for areas providing cover in the form of the native tussac grass Parodiochloa flabellata or introduced gorse Ulex europaeus. Their diet differed markedly between areas, over the season and between age groups in rats. During the incubation period of the prions in November–December, ship rats had mixed diets, composed mainly of plants and mammals, while only 3% of rats had ingested birds. The proportion of ingested birds, including scavenged, increased in the prion chick-rearing period, when 60% of the rats consumed prions. We used δ13C and δ15N to compare the importance of marine-derived food between mammal species and individuals, and found that rats in all but one area took diet of partly marine origin, prions being the most frequently encountered marine food. Most house mice at New Island mainly had terrestrial diet. The stable isotope analysis of tissues with different turnover times indicated that individual rats and mice were consistent in their diet over weeks, but opportunistic in the short term. Some individuals (12% of rats and 7% of mice) were highly specialized in marine-derived food. According to the isotope ratios in a small sample of cat faeces, rodents and rabbits were the chief prey of cats at New Island. Although some individuals of all three predators supplement their terrestrial diet with marine-derived food, the current impact of predation by mammals on the large population of Thin-billed prions at New Island appears small due to a number of factors, including the small size of rodent populations and restriction mainly to small areas providing cover.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the New Island Conservation Trust for permission to work on the island and for providing accommodation and transport. We are grateful to Fabiana Zuñiga Olavarria, Matthew Strange, Monica Silva, Stuart McKay, Bart Groeneveld, Kathy Gunther, Wendy Gibble, Dan Birch, Georgina Strange, Riek van Noordwijk and Paulo Catry for their contribution to the fieldwork. David Gladbach and Felix Weiss participated in the sample preparation, and the Biology department of the University of Konstanz, Germany, facilitated access to laboratory facilities. This study was partly funded by grants provided by Falkland Islands Government (FIG), the Overseas Territories Environmental Programme (OTEP) and PQ received funding from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Qu 148-1ff). The study was carried out with permission of the FIG Environmental Planning Office. All stable isotope analyses were carried out at the NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility (application number EK93-7/06).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck Institut für Ornithologie, Vogelwarte Radolfzell, Schlossallee 2, 78315, Radolfzell, Germany

    Petra Quillfeldt, Juan F. Masello, Anja Gladbach & Verena Roesch

  2. New Island Conservation Trust, The Dolphins, Stanley, Falkland Islands

    Ingrid Schenk & Ian J. Strange

  3. Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 0QF, UK

    Rona A. R. McGill

  4. Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Graham Kerr Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Robert W. Furness

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  1. Petra Quillfeldt
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  2. Ingrid Schenk
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  3. Rona A. R. McGill
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  4. Ian J. Strange
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  7. Verena Roesch
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Correspondence to Petra Quillfeldt.

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Ingrid Schenk: deceased

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Quillfeldt, P., Schenk, I., McGill, R.A.R. et al. Introduced mammals coexist with seabirds at New Island, Falkland Islands: abundance, habitat preferences, and stable isotope analysis of diet . Polar Biol 31, 333–349 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0363-2

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