Menu

Volume 54, No. 1

Volumes > 38 (2010-->)

Volumes 28-37 (2000-09)

Volumes 18-27 (1990-99)

Volumes 5-17 (1978-89) a.k.a 'Cormorant'

Search by author or title:

Foraging areas of breeding adult Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscatus on Bird Island, Seychelles.


Authors

JESSICA L. NEUMANN1, RUTH E. DUNN2, MALCOLM A. C. NICOLL3, CHRISTINE S. LAROSE4, CHRIS FOSTER5, GARY BRODIN6, & CHRIS J. FEARE7
1Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading, Reading, UK
2Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier, France
3Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
4WildWings Bird Management, Pointe au Sel, Mahe, Seychelles
5School of Biological Sciences, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading, Reading, UK
6PathTrack, Otley, UK
7WildWings Bird Management, Haslemere, UK; School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (feare_wildwings@msn.com)

Citation

Neumann, J. L., Dunn, R. E., Nicoll, M. A. C., Larose, C. S., Foster, C., Brodin, G., & Feare, C. J. (2026). Foraging areas of breeding adult Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscatus on Bird Island, Seychelles. Marine Ornithology, 54(1), 131-138.
http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.54.1.1682

Received 14 January 2024, accepted 17 July 2025

Date Published: 2026/04/15
Date Online: 2026/04/15
Download PDF
Key words: foraging, foraging range, Indian Ocean, marine protected area, tropical seabird

Abstract

The foraging areas used by adult Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscatus during incubation and early chick-rearing on Bird Island, Seychelles, were investigated using small GPS loggers. Birds departed the colony mainly during the night and foraged by day. Most foraging trips were completed within 24 hr, but during incubation the longest duration recorded was seven days and 14 hr (during which the bird travelled 2,783 km and reached a maximum of 692 km from the colony). Departures were generally in an arc from south (180°) through westerly to 40°. Sooty Terns foraged frequently in waters over the Seychelles Bank shelf break, but some birds travelled further, including to the area around the Coco-de-Mer Ridge ca. 400 km north of Bird Island. In the four days after hatching, adult foraging trips tended to be shorter, within 24 hr, and the small sample of tracks obtained revealed that they potentially foraged over deeper areas. Most of the foraging areas identified were within the Seychelles' Exclusive Economic Zone, with some foraging areas occurring outside the Seychelles marine protected areas.

References


Andriamahefazafy, M., Bailey, M., Sinan, H., & Kull, C. A. (2020). The paradox of sustainable tuna fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean: Between visions of blue economy and realities of accumulation. Sustainability Science, 15, 75-89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00751-3

Ashmole, N. P. (1963). The regulation of numbers of tropical oceanic birds. Ibis, 103b(3), 458-473. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1963.tb06766.x

Au, D. W. K., & Pitman, R. L. (1986). Seabird interactions with dolphins and tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific. The Condor, 88(3), 304-317. https://doi.org/10.2307/1368877

Bairos-Novak, K. R., Crook, K. A., & Davoren, G. K. (2015). Relative importance of local enhancement as a search strategy for breeding seabirds: An experimental approach. Animal Behaviour, 106, 71-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.05.002

Baston, D. (2023). exactextractr: Fast extraction from raster datasets using polygons (Version 0.10.0) [R package]. CRAN package repository. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=exactextractr

Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1-48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01

Birt, V. L., Birt, T. P., Goulet, D., Cairns, D. K., & Montevecchi, W. A. (1987) Ashmole's halo: Direct evidence for prey depletion by a seabird. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 40, 205-208. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps040205

Boyd, C. A., Grünbaum, D., Hunt, G. L., Punt, A. E., Weimerskirch, H., & Bertrand, S. (2016). Effectiveness of social information used by seabirds searching for unpredictable and ephemeral prey. Behavioral Ecology, 27(4), 1223-1234. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arw039

Calenge, C. (2024). adehabitatHR: Home range estimation (Version 0.4.22) [R package]. CRAN package repository. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=adehabitatHR

Castillo-Trujillo, A. C., Arzeno-Soltero, I. B., Giddings, S. N., Pawlak, G., McClean, J., & Rainville, L. (2021). Observations and modeling of ocean circulation in the Seychelles Plateau region. JGR Oceans, 126(2), Article e2020JC016593. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016593

Christ, H. J., White, R., Hood, L., Vianna, G. M. S., & Zeller, D. (2020), A baseline for the blue economy: Catch and effort history in the Republic of Seychelles' domestic fisheries. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, Article 269. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00269

Clay, T. A., Oppel, S., Lavers, J. L., Phillips, R. A., & Brooke, M. de L. (2019). Divergent foraging strategies during incubation of an unusually wide-ranging seabird, the Murphy's petrel. Marine Biology, 166, Article 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-018-3451-7

Diamond, A. W. (1978) Feeding strategies and population size in tropical seabirds. The American Naturalist, 112(983), 215-223. https://doi.org/10.1086/283261

Erwin, C. A., & Congdon, B. C. (2007). Day-to-day variation in sea-surface temperature reduces sooty tern Sterna fuscata foraging success on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 331, 255-266. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps331255

Feare, C. J. (1976). The breeding of the Sooty tern Sterna fuscata in the Seychelles and the effects of experimental removal of its eggs. Journal of Zoology, 179(2), 317-360. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1976.tb02299.x

Feare, C. J. (1979). Ecology of Bird Island, Seychelles. Atoll Research Bulletin, 226, 1-29.

Feare, C. J., & Doherty, P. F., Jr. (2004). Survival estimates of adult Sooty Terns Sterna fuscata from Bird Island, Seychelles. Ibis, 146(3), 475-480. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919x.2004.00288.x

Feare, C. J., & Doherty, P. F., Jr. (2011). Age at first breeding and pre-breeding survival in Seychelles Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscatus. Marine Ornithology, 39(2), 221-226. http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.39.2.939

Flint, E. N. (1991). Time and energy limits to the foraging radius of Sooty Terns Sterna fuscata. Ibis, 133(1), 43-46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1991.tb04808.x

Furness, R. W. (2007). Responses of seabirds to depletion of food fish stocks. Journal of Ornithology, 148(Supplement 2), 247-252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-007-0152-2

Gaston, A. J., Ydenberg, R. C., & Smith, G. E. J. (2007). Ashmole's halo and population regulation in seabirds. Marine Ornithology, 35(2), 119-126. http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.35.2.742

George, J. V., Nuncio, M., Anilkumar, N., Chacko, R., & Rajashekhar, D. (2018). Seasonal surface chlorophyll a variability in the Seychelles-Chagos Thermocline Ridge. Current Science, 114(4), 868-878. https://doi.org/10.18520/cs/v114/i04/868-878

Gould, P. J. (1967). Nocturnal feeding of Sterna fuscata and Puffinus pacificus. The Condor, 69(5), 529. https://doi.org/10.2307/1366157

Gozzer-Wuest, R., Alonso-Población, E., & Tingley, G. A. (2021). Identifying priority areas for improvement in Peruvian Fisheries. Marine Policy, 129, Article 104545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104545

Grémillet, D., Mullers, R. H., Moseley, C., Pichegru, L., Coetzee, J. C., Sabarros, P. S., van der Lingen, C. D., Ryan, P. G., Kato, A., & Ropert-Coudert, Y. (2010). Seabirds, fisheries, and cameras. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 8(8), 401-402. https://doi.org/10.1890/10.WB.020

Hill, M. J., Vel, M. V., Holm, K. J., Parr, S. J., & Shah, N. J. (2002). Bird. Atoll Research Bulletin, 495, 11-28. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40014841

Jaeger, A., Feare, C. J., Summers, R. W., Lebarbenchon, C., Larose, C. S., & Le Corre, M. (2017). Geolocation reveals year-round at-sea distribution and activity of a superabundant tropical seabird, the sooty tern Onychoprion fuscatus. Frontiers in Marine Science, 4, Article 394. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00394

Jaquemet, S., Le Corre, M., & Quartly, G. D. (2007). Ocean control of the breeding regime of the sooty tern in the southwest Indian Ocean. Deep-Sea Research Part I, 54(1), 130-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2006.10.003

Jaquemet, S., Potier, M., Cherel, Y., Kojadinovic, J., Bustamante, P. Richard, P., Catry, T., Ramos, J. A., & Le Corre, M. (2008). Comparative foraging ecology and ecological niche of a superabundant tropical seabird: The sooty tern Sterna fuscata in the southwest Indian Ocean. Marine Biology, 155, 505-520. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-008-1049-1

Langley, L. P., Lang, S. D. J., Ozsanlav-Harris, L., & Trevail, A. M. (2024). ExMove: An open-source toolkit for processing and exploring animal-tracking data in R. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93(7), 784-795. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14111

Lenth, R. V. (2025). emmeans: Estimated marginal means, aka least-squares means. (Version 1.11.1) [R package]. CRAN package repository. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=emmeans

Mallory, M. L., & Gilbert, C. D. (2008). Leg-loop harness design for attaching external transmitters to seabirds. Marine Ornithology, 36(2), 183-188. http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.36.2.788

Maxwell, S. M., & Morgan, L. E. (2013). Foraging of seabirds on pelagic fishes: Implications for management of pelagic marine protected areas. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 481, 289-303. http://doi.org/10.3354/meps10255

Neumann, J. L., Larose, C. S., Brodin, G., & Feare, C. J. (2018). Foraging ranges of incubating Sooty Terns Onychoprion fuscatus on Bird Island, Seychelles, during a transition from food plenty to scarcity, as revealed by GPS loggers. Marine Ornithology, 46(1), 11-18. http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.46.1.1242

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (2022). ETOPO 2022 15 arc-second global relief model. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.25921/fd45-gt74

Pante, E., Simon-Bouhet, B., & Irisson, J. (2023). marmap: Import, plot and analyze bathymetric and topographic data (Version 1.0.10) [R package]. CRAN package repository. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=marmap

Phillips, H. E., Tandon, A., Furue, R., Hood, R., Ummenhofer, C. C., Benthuysen, J. A., Menezes, V., Hu, S., Webber, B., Sanchez-Franks, A., Cherian, D., Shroyer, E., Feng, M., Wijesekera, H., Chatterjee, A., Yu, L., Hermes, J., Murtugudde, R., Tozuka, T., . . . Wiggert, J. (2021). Progress in understanding of Indian Ocean circulation, variability, air-sea exchange, and impacts on biogeochemistry. Ocean Science, 17(6), 1677-1751. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-1677-2021

Pillai, N. G., & Satheeshkumar, P. (2012). Biology, fishery, conservation and management of Indian Ocean tuna fisheries. Ocean Science Journal, 47, 411-433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-012-0038-y

R Core Team. (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing (Version 4.4.1) [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria https://www.R-project.org/

R Studio Team. (2021). R Studio: Integrated Development Environment for R (Version 2024.09.1+394) [Computer software]. RStudio; PBC. http://www.rstudio.com

Reynolds, S. J., Hughes, B. J., Wearn, C. P., Dickey, R. C., Brown, J., Weber, N. L., Weber, S. B., Paiva, V. H., & Ramos, J. A. (2019). Long-term dietary shift and population decline of a pelagic seabird—A health check on the tropical Atlantic? Global Change Biology, 25(4), 1383-1394. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14560

Ronconi, R. A., Smith, J. L., & Allard, K. A. (2023). Protecting marine habitats: Spatial conservation measures for seabirds at sea. In L. Young & E. VanderWerf (Eds.), Conservation of marine birds (pp. 497-544). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-88539-3.00007-8

Schott, F. A., & McCreary, J. P., Jr. (2001). The monsoon circulation of the Indian Ocean. Progress in Oceanography, 51(1), 1-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6611(01)00083-0

Schreiber, E. A., Feare, C. J., Harrington, B. A., Murray, B. G., Jr., Robertson, W. B., Jr., Robertson, M. J., & Woolfenden, G. E. (2020). Sooty Tern (Onychoprion fuscatus) (Version 1.0). In S. M. Billerman (Ed.), Birds of the world. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.sooter1.01

Shoji, A., Aris-Brosou, S., Fayet, A., Padget, O., Perrins, C., & Guilford, T. (2015). Dual foraging and pair coordination during chick provisioning by Manx shearwaters: Empirical evidence supported by a simple model. Journal of Experimental Biology, 218(13), 2116-2123. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.120626

Soanes, L. M., Bright, J. A., Brodin, G., Mukhida, F., & Green, J. A. (2015). Tracking a small seabird: First records of foraging movements in the Sooty Tern Onychoprion fuscatus. Marine Ornithology, 43(2), 235-239. http://doi.org/10.5038/2074-1235.43.2.1136

Spear, L. B., Ainley, D. G., & Walker, W. A. (2007). Foraging dynamics of seabirds in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Studies in Avian Biology, 35, 1-99. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/sab/vol35/iss1/11

Search by author or title:

Browse previous volumes:

Volumes > 38 (2010-->)

Volumes 28-37 (2000-09)

Volumes 18-27 (1990-99)

Volumes 5-17 (1978-89) a.k.a 'Cormorant'