Storm Petrel foraging areas highlighted !

The work on Storm Petrel foraging areas (here) has been highlighted by the journal Quercus this month ! Congrats GEDA-i team!

 

Lizard campaign just started!

 The first island has been sampled. Likely we had good weather and animals were collaborating. Looking forward to calculate an estimate of population size from the CMR data collected.Only five to go!

Left the nest !

 

The fledgling of griffon vulture marked in Mallorca has left the nest and explored the environment!! 

A press note by the Vulture Conservation Fundation here   

Cover!

A picture by Victor Paris was selected for the Cover of the 68th volume of the journal ARDEOLA to illustrate Rotger, A. et al. publication Foraging far from home: GPS-tracking of Mediterranean Storm Petrel reveals long.distance foraging movements. Congrats Victor, amazing picture!

 

A GEDAi member within the Short Listed most influencial authors!

Congratulations to Ana Sanz-Aguilar from the GEDAi,  short-listed among the ten most influencial authors in the 'Natural Resouces' area in the Balearic region during the period 2017-2019.

Well done for a well deserved recognition! The whole GEDAi is very proud of your success !

New Publication on European Storm Petrel : foraging areas revealed for the first time !

Rotger, A., Sola, A., Tavecchia, G. and Sanz-Aguilar, A. 2020. Foraging Far from Home: Gps-Tracking of Mediterranean Storm-Petrels Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis Reveals Long-Distance Foraging Movements. Ardeola, 68(1):3-16 (2020). https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.68.1.2021.ra1

Abstract: Identifying important foraging areas is fundamental to detecting the demographic drivers of a species and ultimately to plan conservation measures. For some species, such as small pelagic seabirds, foraging grounds are difficult to locate and remain largely unknown. We used miniaturised GPS devices (∼0.95g) to study foraging movements of Mediterranean Storm-petrels Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis during the incubation period. A total of 43 individuals at Benidorm colony (southwestern Mediterranean Sea) were tracked during a single foraging trip. We first assessed potential negative effects of the tracking devices.

We recorded 22 complete foraging trips and measured home-range, foraging areas and the degree of overlap among individuals. We used first passage time analyses (FPT) to differentiate foraging/resting from flying/travelling activities and to infer potential foraging areas. All tracked birds returned to the colony. On average, individual body weight slightly decreased after foraging trips, suggesting a small immediate negative effect of the device. Tracked birds had high breeding success (0.71). Foraging trips lasted between 1 and 4.5 days with the total distance travelled ranging between 303.14 and 1,726.53km. The visited areas covered the whole south-western part of the Mediterranean Sea. Tracked individuals shared more than 50% of their home-range areas. Foraging areas were located further from the colony than previously thought (from 240 to 469km away) on deep sea areas of the Alboran Sea and Cartagena Canyons. Further studies are needed to locate foraging grounds during other life-cycle periods and to evaluate repeatability yearly, in order to determine the important marine areas for the species.—Rotger, A., Sola, A., Tavecchia, G. & Sanz-Aguilar, A. (2021). Foraging far from home: GPS-tracking of Mediterranean Storm-petrels Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis reveals long-distance foraging movements. Ardeola, 68: 3-16.

Storm Petrel 3rd campaign!

The third Storm Petrel campaign in 2020 is ongoing. This will be the 27th year of monitoring at Benidorm Island. Congratulation to all who made this possible, especially to A Sanz-Aguilar who kept the study alive during the last 13 years. More we study them, more these little birds surprise us.

First Griffon vulture marked in the wild in Mallorca!

The GEDAi helped the marking of the first Griffon vulture in the wild. It was a young bird taken from its nest just before fledgling (weighting ~7kg!). The Griffon Vulture arrived in Mallorca island in 2008  as a consequence of a huge storm. Since 2012 it breeds in the island.The bird has been equipped with a GMS/GPS radio, sponsored by the Vulture Conservation Fundation, under the supervision of Dra A. Cortés-Avizanda.  Keep posted to see how and where it flies.

More here