Sjurdur Hammer, Ph.DHow cool is your day? I'm laying behind a moss covered rock peeping at nesting skuas #greatskua #teamskua #PFAS study in the #faroeislands #seabirds 🧪🌍
I investigate great skua pellets and prey remains to study their diet, and more recently to investigate plastic occurence in the seabird foodchain. Can you guess the prey species? #ecotoxicology #seabirds #plastic #teamskua
Functions of avian elongated tails, with suggestions for future studies https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.13222?af=R #ornithology #teamskua
Turns out that between eating penguin eggs and chicks, skuas have a soft spot for dandelions. Who would have thought!?
Danel et al 2023
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10336-023-02061-z
Plant consumer innovation in skuas - Journal of Ornithology
We report observations of alien dandelion (Taraxacum officinale group) consumption in an opportunistic predatory seabird, the brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus lonnbergi), from a natural population on île Verte within the Kerguelen archipelago. Observations on a nearby island suggest that this behaviour is not specific to our study area, paving the way to future studies investigating whether this consumer innovation prevails in skua populations and results in dietary benefits.
#teamskua - boost to join the team, or favorite if you’re a #teamgull peasant #seabirdbattle #ornithology